I count to 4

spring post

2010-04-12T06:48:00.000-07:00

Ha, yes, it comes down to a seasonal posting

Spring term, now. 19 credits. Still 22 to go. Used up all my electives but there are still classes I want to take. Environmental Law was one of those, so I'm in the class. Geology is another.

But yes! 22 credits left! 10 over summer and 12 in fall.

Smart half was cut loose from his shitass job, too.

dusty in here!

2009-11-18T05:32:00.000-08:00

Reshuffling of priorities the last year or so. When's the last time I posted here?! i didn't even look!

Ok well I'm still in school and set to gradumate in the fall of '10. I'll miss my goal of doing this in exactly two years by three terms, but so what... it'll be done.

My teachers and professors have all been mostly awesome so far, except for one, and we won't go there. Note to adjunct community college teachers everywhere- If you spent the majority of your career teaching primary school and have gone to work in a community college, please adjust your teaching style. NOBODY wants to relive their 3rd grade year. That's right- NOBODY. And no one wants a new unreasonable rule after unreasonable rule surprising them and piling up on them at every class meeting.

Smart half will be done the same term. He'll have a degree in accounting.

yay!

I have all of my math requirements done. I still can't say I ever got an A in a math class, but I got some Bs. And I was happy to have the Bs, for sure. Because I never got a B in math, either...

I have one more class each in writing, communications and business. I'm full-on science classes til I am finished (10 more classes of them). I am not a scientific person. I often wonder what the hell I was thinking when I chose my degree program. Not that I don't enjoy science, because I really do dig all the ologies I've encountered... I'm just not good at the whole lab report thing and don't always get the point in class. I'm almost completely "right-brain" and this "left-brain" stuff involves learning a new thinking thing. I have high Bs so far in these classes this term and am bringing those grades up with more efficient studying methods. (bizarre to even have those words come out of my head, actually).

My mad skillz lie in words, and so I'm lucky enough that I am now working in the tutoring center as a writing tutor.

ta

halp!

2009-10-21T19:55:00.000-07:00

A backhoe ran over the internets today and broke it!

harharhar

serviceable

2009-06-16T22:21:00.000-07:00

My old best friend/sister is getting married this weekend.

Strangely enough...

So over the past few months i've been working on a wedding gift for her and her guy. I started by buying a large quantity of fimo, primo and sculpey clay, in many colors, and two sets of pigment (12 jars each set), and a cheapass wooden jewelry box. And two kinds of grout.

I've never done anything that needed grout, so I just bought two bags of dry stuff.

Then, I made a big ol' margarine bucket full of tiles that I made with the clay, all about 2 x 2 or smaller, and some in odd shapes. Into the clay I stamped little designs, some from stamps, some from jewelry, some from traveling around friends' houses and squishing it onto things with interesting textures. Then I cut them all into neat little shapes. Glued them onto the box (ok I know now that I should have actually used mastic), then grouted the whole bugger up. Fabulously messy. The grouting was the best part.

I don't know how durable this is going to be, but it's a custom deal with their names on it and stuff I made all myself, and it is signed, but they will have to find the signature. It's encoded on its own tile. I will try to remember to get some pics of it and add it to flickr. I still have to paint the inside though.

just thinkin

2009-06-14T09:23:00.000-07:00

that I hate people who sign their posts, emails, comments, etc with "Just a thought".

More passive-aggressive "I know more than you do" bullshit, attempts at snide superiority and all that.

Finals are over, I have a week free before school begins this summer. Grade update: Took a W in math earlier in the term.
A in writing (from a teacher who "doesn't give anyone As", from what my fellow students say).
A in the Health class.
B in Excel class.
A in the GPS & Mapping class.

Also was recommended for the tutoring center to tutor the writing students in the class I just finished, as well as the three under it, and am wanted two days a week in class by the teacher who doesn't give anyone As but gave me one.

bwahahah.

Seriously, though, math has been the only class that's challenging. I got the low grade in Excel for a few reasons- total chaos during the class, a teacher that was like sandpaper on a sunburn and sheer frustration with a program that just makes little sense to me. I can see where it's useful, but don't give a crap about learning it.

And so ends year one at Klamath Community College.

good stuff, maynard

2009-05-21T08:57:00.000-07:00

The more I listen to middle eastern dance music, the more i love it. It's so free sounding. I think that's the polyrhythms but man, if there's something that makes me want to dance, this stuff is it. A ended up with a promo from a few years ago put out by Putumayo Records called Turkish Dance Groove. It doesn't have any artist info, but it says "A musical mix of Balkan, Central Asian, and Middle Eastern flavors mixed with sophisticated global pop and dance music". Whatever. It's good shit. I'm especially enamored by Gulseren and Bendeniz. I think both of these are Turkish..

I dig the different scales and vocal styles (different compared to western music), how the instruments are used differently than we would, and how seamlessly it meshes with techno stylings.

nuthin no how

2009-05-19T11:53:00.000-07:00

I don't live in a "community", if one defines "community" as a group of disparate people working to make life better. Every effort to make it a better place is stonewalled, plastered with blame- every step a battle with city and county government, neighbors and economic interests. This is a town full of bitter, angry people who hate each other. "Stupid" is a cloud that hangs over it. Bush 1's "thousand points of light" are so dim and weak and browbeaten they can barely be seen or heard anymore. Everything is someone else's fault, someone else's problem, someone else's mess, drug problem, poverty or hungry kid. This is the "me" generation as it begins its daily regimen of Geritol.

just gross

2009-05-16T08:28:00.000-07:00

will somebody do something about all the tooth-whitening ads online? They're really gross and I'm really sick of looking at other people's gross teeth.

Limpin' ain't easy

2009-04-21T10:43:00.000-07:00

Saturday night, while trying to do my part for the environment by hanging blankets out on the line (ok and also because i'm cheap and it cuts the power bill a lot) I fell down the back porch stairs and sprained an ankle. At least the blanket hit the ground before I did and the landing for most of me was pretty soft. But damp.

holy cow

2009-03-18T15:42:00.001-07:00

there's a happy cow commercial with two cows that have my first and middle names. how weird.

a neat lady

2009-02-28T09:16:00.000-08:00

I have, over the past few months, become friends with a really neat old lady. She's about 70 and has a very active and inquisitive mind. I started teaching her to play the guitar a couple of months ago, and she's kicking ass at it. She is playing "House of the Rising Sun", and she figured out how to transpose it to other keys on her own. When she first started, I played my fingerstyle arrangement for her and she swore she'd never be able to do it. Ok she's got the chords and is real close to being able to pick through it. She gets a fistbump and a hellyeah. She memorized the string names to "Every Awesome Dude Goes Bonkers Early". And we sing "House of the Rising Sun" with the Gilligan's Island theme song words. And then we just laugh til we cry because we're crackin ourselves up.

"Mama Weer All Crazy Now" is a scream when you play it all fingerpickin/folky style.

I had left a damaged but still totally playable Spanish classical guitar at her house for her grandson to goof off on and then she brought it out one day and started asking me about it. Her grandson has a mean rhythm hand. He is on it. He's 8.

hmm

2009-02-28T07:51:00.000-08:00

all the noise about decriminalization is very interesting. I just want the grows out of the forests. How can we do that? Hmm. Maybe someone will figure it out soon.

Buy local! Know your grower!

Dewd!

2009-02-20T09:55:00.000-08:00

I have an A in my math class right now, with like three weeks left to go. A solid 91%! I can hardly BELIEVE it! You are reading the writings of someone who failed basic math over and over and over until the first quarter of her sophomore year in high school (when she was shuffled off to "business math" so I could get my math quota to graduate).

For me to have an A in a math class, well, it just about makes me want to cry, squeal, laugh, holler, shout, etc.

On the other hand, I am not feeling very challenged by my cultural geography class. :(

Plus, my dad said he was going to come back to the states for my graduation from KCC. He said he's been waiting 20 years for it. heh.

zip zowie

2009-02-16T08:02:00.000-08:00

Hell yeah aced all three of my midterms including the math one. I was so shocked to get that I even had to ask the teacher if my grade sheet was actually mine and not someone else's.

Next week is the final class in the Historic Land Management community education class I signed up for. It's been a great class so far.

I'm looking at U of Idaho at Moscow for my Bachelor's. It's the only college that offers what I want to take.

Had a great show on KTEC yesterday. Friday, there was an information panel offered in town here on the Israel-Palestine conflict. I had the two organizers come on the show and talk about the panel, and it went really smoothly. I was surprised that the phone wasn't clanging away, but it wasn't really presented in a way that was confrontational. So either no one was listening or no one felt offended enough to call and tell me how offended they were.

And to top off a pretty sweet month, I learned to play "Mama Weer All Crazee Now" on the guitar. I play it acoustic, having learned the Slade one and then filtering it through the Runaways version rather than the Quiet Riot one. I even sing it.

In December I was given a stack of promo stuff from a local Alliance sales rep. Some good shit in there. Heavy Trash, anyone?

not what it was

2009-02-05T08:12:00.000-08:00

A new Michael's store opened up here in town. So I went, because I'm hoping to finally have a local outlet to buy my Rapidograph ink. I loved the store when I lived in places that had it before.

Nope. No Rapidograph anything there. In fact, 80% of the store is dedicated to scrapbooking. Pft.

waiting

2009-01-02T12:41:00.000-08:00

man what the fuck is up with the postal service lately?!

catchin up

2008-12-29T11:28:00.000-08:00

i have just been enjoying my fuckoff time, even though i am not fucking off as much as i would like to.

School- slam dunk. A's in the CIS and Art History class. Passed math with a C. (sigh) I have to figure out how to make math interesting to me.

Fambly- I am the proud owner of a new stepmother! Dad's wife #4 joined our family about three weeks ago. Dad's happy, so I guess that's what is important.

Music- our Christmas benefit went really well. We presented a fairly large check to the local foodbank and a big can of food for them.

Weather- (points at Portland and laughs, then apologizes). Currently about 15 inches of snow on our ground, but melting fast with a warmer wind and rain the last couple of days. More snow on the way. It's currently a balmy 48.3 degrees on our front porch.

Goofin- New bottle of rapidograph ink on its way courtesy of my fabulous mom. And more drawing paper. And who knows what else.

General wa-hoo- Since 5th grade, I have been in love with this book. After that many years of trying to hunt it down in stores, check it out at libraries (it's always out, and never coming back) I bought myself a copy for my birthday. I am jumping out of my skin waiting for it. I wish it was here RIGHT NOW!

Holiday Lewt- new stepmom, Norman McClean's "Young Men and Fire". A Fidji's munchie setup, homemade coconut biscotti, inflatable toast, homemade fudge, various cards and letters, a day spent with just my smart half, an idea that struck like lightning, good friends, the news that one of my nutty aunts is doing okay with chemo for breast cancer, blue sky and fresh snow on christmas day, a cozy solstice with friends, two travelin coffee mugs, homemade zucchini, banana and pumpkin breads, some dollah bills... created another rabid Chris Cornell fan (now I have someone to squeal with).

Fall '08

2008-12-11T19:46:00.000-08:00

Yay the term is over and I'm done with my finals. weee! Already got my grade back for the computer class, an A. Think I did well on the art history test. Probably totally floundered in the damn math class. ouch. Must. Try. Harder.

fail

2008-11-28T07:26:00.001-08:00

heh. I got an F on a math test the other day. I knew the day would come. I tried, I studied (on my own, since the smart half was busy, tired and a little grouchy for a while there) and see how far that got me. It was polynomials. Too many rules for exponents. All the rules got crammed into my head in two days, and most of them fell out before the test.

On the other hand, still an obnoxious teacher's pet A student in Art History. I don't even have the text book for the class, and my mom just sent up the old one she had (sixth edition, 1975 print date), which is the one I read over and over when I was a kid. There are some architecture plans in it that aren't in the new edition and that the teacher doesn't have so I spent some time making them digital for him. Scanning didn't work because the book was too thick so I hope the pictures I took of it will work out.

To balance out the misery of getting an F on a test (o yeah, did I mention cried my wittle lump of coal heart out when I got it back) I went and got a grown-up haircut. I had a hippy mop that was totally out of control, half way down my back, unmanageable mess of curls (where the hell did these come from?!). Had about six inches cut off. She did me up just fine for color and a great style. FIRST EVER time I walked out of a salon with a style I really liked. Put a big hole in the bank account. Smart Half ok with it because DAMN i look alright! Dyn-o-mite, even. Which just goes with the other fantastic thing- I got new pants that are four sizes smaller than the ones I was wearing 18 months ago. And they are even just a weeee bit big.

under

2008-11-28T07:23:00.000-08:00

Awesome. Gas finally dropped below $2 here on Wednesday. I hope the Saudis like it. Maybe they should diversify their economy. They should focus on tourism.

(typed with a straight face, of course)

aar matey

2008-11-19T05:40:00.001-08:00

So, for next year's "Talk Like a Pirate Day", should we be speaking Somalian?

a pondering

2008-11-12T06:39:00.001-08:00

HEading into my second full-time term (well, 11 credits, so 1 short of full-time), and basing what I'm going to say on what I've taken so far, it seems like it would be hard to get anything less than a really good grade at this community college.

When I first started I knew some other people who already had a couple of terms under their belts, and I asked to see their writing so I could judge where I was in relation to the college writing classes. What I saw was something I found a little shocking.

What they showed me were the equivalents to what I was writing in middle school English classes, and they were getting As on these papers.

So, either the schooling has been dumbed down immensely, and I don't know if this is a reflection of the community or what, or my secondary school district had very high standards that we lived up to. I only saw papers from the WRI121 class, which is English Comp, but really, what's the deal here? I thought college classes were supposed to be hard- and when I can turn in a 3 page paper on Neolithic art that took me all of an hour to research and 10 minutes to type and proofread and I get an A+ on it, I have to wonder.

Math is math no matter when or where you take it. Some of us will forever struggle with it and some of us cut through every math class like a hot knife in cool whip. I'll never be a hot knife at math, but I'm better at it than I used to be. The fact that I'm halfway through the term and still passing the class says something.

and speaking of school

2008-11-11T09:54:00.000-08:00

My friend the Warthogger was the one that nudged me back to school. She graduated with a BS in Business Management- Marketing at 48. She nudged someone else into it, too, so we've been happily busting our brains for a few months. I nudged my Smart Half back into it. The other person who was nudged by the Warthogger nudged Screamin' Nat into it. And our professional country star in disguise is registering this term. I just talked to Djeef, and his smart half has been nudging him, and we had a good discussion about that. I nudged, too.

No matter what, it can't hurt. And if you aren't working, you might as well do something useful with yourself, right?

Because researching whether or not one gets more loaded by using a bong full of cold water, ice or snow vs regular water is not really all that useful.

set up for next term

2008-11-11T09:48:00.000-08:00

Yay I got all registered today.
Next class in my Math sequence (check)
Next class in my Art History sequence (check)
Geology and the associated lab (check)

and... and I was surprised to see this, and totally pleased, but bummed out that it isn't a credit class, but figured it would be cool to take it and even though it isn't a credit class, it'll show up on my transcript I think.

Historic Land Management -"This course will discuss and define an historic Native American land management regime within Oregon. Oregon regions will be separated by elevation and move from West to East. Lectures will discuss how Native Americans over generations of living within a given ecosystem developed land management regimes that were not only sustainable but in many cases increased biodiversity levels. Lectures will also help in defining the ethics that were incorporated into Native American management and how these ethics helped guide Native Americans in their daily lives. We will discuss how these theories and techniques can be utilized into todays land management. Topics to be discussed will include but not be limited to defining a Native American land ethic, fire ecology, fishing, hunting, and gathering techniques."

Just got the news

2008-11-04T20:06:00.001-08:00

And I gotta say it's pretty damn good news.

sick of part stores

2008-11-02T23:51:00.000-08:00

had to get a part for the 4runner. got the usual runaround, was handed the wrong part a couple of times and was laughed at when I said it was the wrong one, only to find out from the dealership that HEY not only was I right, it WAS the wrong part, but the part isn't available unless you buy an idler pulley for $60. I made do with gasket goo, because i'm not paying $60 for a friggin rubber o-ring.

then finally managed to hunt down the culprit for the continuing warm-stall problem in the scootypuff (20 years, entire cooling and interior heating system tear down and rebuild later). Coolant temp sensor. Went to parts store again. Get sensor. Get home. Go to install sensor. Notice it's also not the correct part. At least i didn't take the old one out already.

It's fucking bullshit, i tell you.

confused vapidity

2008-10-29T23:51:00.000-07:00

something vaguely interesting happened today.

Not necessarily to anyone else. Just to me.

But I've forgotten what it was.

Have I mentioned how much I like to say "Wadjet?

wow

2008-10-28T21:02:00.001-07:00

gas has been dropping here by about 20 cents a day. from yesterday to today, it fell 40 cents- from $2.79/gallon to $2.39. I wonder if it'll be under $2 by the end of the week.

It takes a little pressure off, which is nice.

At least I'm not spending $80/week for work anymore. That was two tanks full every week over the summer when I was doing the merchandising. We were really fucked for a while there because of that job.

woot!

2008-10-24T21:36:00.000-07:00

I got a 110% on my first ART 204 chapter review/paper. I am so totally a teacher's pet. ~chortle~

o yeah !

2008-10-20T06:53:00.000-07:00

And I'm maintaining my B in math term so far!!

We're graphing linear equations.

I had no idea what a linear equation even looked like until last week. It's genius how you can check your answers by seeing if you have a line of dots. I wish I had been taught this in high school algebra classes.

givin the man the other finger, too

2008-10-20T06:50:00.000-07:00

September natural gas bill- $17
October bill- $12

Part of that is we had our furnace pilot off until about a week ago. Big diff.

I'm sure it'll go back up again. heh.

Gimme back my finga!

i have a problem!

2008-10-20T06:44:00.000-07:00

Well I have many of course, as we all do. This one is kind of nice to have.

None of my jeans fit me anymore. They're all too big. They are all size 12s. And I don't mean they're just a little loose. I mean the damn things fall off me without a belt.

Time to head to Goodwill or the little shop of things (that has used Levi's for 8-10$/pair and no I will not share the location of this little gem nyaaaah).

I got these jeans last year when I shrunk out of all my size 16s and 14s finally.

Can't quite fit back into my leather pants... but soon... SOOON! muahahaha!

(So anyway yeah, after a year of removing high fructose corn syrup from our diet, I've lost probably three sizes. They say it's ok in moderation, but what's moderation if it's in almost everything at the store?)

an interesting tidbit

2008-10-13T13:08:00.000-07:00

I just learned that if you barf really hard, you can give yourself two nice black eyes.

Luckily, my eyes are now returning to normal.

flippin off the man, man

2008-10-09T13:06:00.000-07:00

most recent power bill- $29.
previous one- $33
one prior to that $42.

Gawd that is just so awesome.

middle fork

2008-10-08T22:19:00.001-07:00

Art Through the Ages

2008-10-07T08:56:00.001-07:00

This is the textbook we use in my ART204 class, which is art history from the paleolithic onward to I'm not sure when.

The amusing thing is that we use the 12th edition. My mom took art history at some point when I was a kid, and so a much older edition wandered around our house for many years. It was probably the 4th or 5th edition (maybe even a later one, I'm not sure which one she had exactly). Which I read cover to cover at least a dozen times by the time I was a senior in high school. So the course is sort of a refresher. I remember a lot of the main points from the older book, things about Catal Huyuk and the various cave paintings in the Pyrenees for example, in what we're covering right now.

One thing about paintings at Lascaux and Chauvet that has always just made my heart stop for a moment is the pictures of the hands that the artists made. Oh the animals are great and there are some that I would love to get tattooed on me somewhere, but the hands... a very simple thing that says "I was here" and they were there 20,000 years ago. A thread that connects them to us. Our hands are the same as their hands were. They are us and no matter the book smarts or technology that we create, we are them.

we got our bone

2008-10-06T08:14:00.000-07:00

with the passing of the bailout the timber counties were able to get an extension on the OC&E funds. I guess we're supposed to jump up and down with joy. "we're taking 700 billion, but here's a handful of pennies for your schools and libraries"

assholes. ASSHOLES!

applying padded bloomers

2008-10-05T13:08:00.000-07:00

This term is gonna kick my ass. So will the rest of them, of course, but I'm only concerned with this one. yeesh.

I've already worn through one eraser for my math class. A week into it...

laugh or cry

2008-10-04T13:02:00.000-07:00

The amount of adjectives, metaphors and similes, etc being trotted out and made up (some of them are really good ones) over the past few weeks about the mess in the money is mindboggling.

When the tough gets going, break out the big flowery words, I guess.

my niecy with the pipes

2008-09-26T14:47:00.000-07:00

She didn't win, but I think she should have. She did a truly incredible job on this song.

out and around

2008-09-25T11:02:00.000-07:00

Our festival was a smash. It was great!

I went out to boooze bay to see my neecy compete in the Teen Idol singing competition. She placed second, but I do firmly believe, all bias aside, that she was the better singer. The audience knew it, too. I listened to her practice "At Last" by Etta James and it made me cry. That's really something. I came back home with a flu-ey kind of ick.

Our jam spot had a fire, but we're back up and running at the local Legion hall for now, starting tonight. I hadn't even had a chance to piss the neighbors off with the drums, yet. I'm devastated. laff.

Smart Half will be going back to school with me! I'm totally excited about it.

Scootypuff blew out another CV boot. Time to park it for a while and bus it around til I can have these replaced. Three boots are bad, and at least one actual CV joint. This in addition to the front end just being trashed. I was thinking of busing it for most of the winter anyway.

Holy crap its tomorrow

2008-09-12T10:28:00.000-07:00

the blues festival that is. It's goin to be AWESOME!

hehe woot!

Got one back

2008-09-09T09:57:00.000-07:00

Lizard prince sent me an unedited sound file from Saturday. It was three songs long with some conversation. One of them was pretty damn good, if I do say so myself. One of my favorite songs of all time, "Diane", originally done by Husker Du and then covered in about five different ways by one of my favorite bands of all time, Therapy?. It was just me singing and playing Puddin. I got a great sound, even, out of my dinky little 15w amp, too.

It's always exciting to hear a recording of myself. I'm an egomaniac that way. Part of it is that I still can't believe I can play an instrument, so it's cool to hear myself doing it.

So I guess in a couple of days I'll have the edited one and I will upload it to the Butcher page.

tuneage

2008-09-07T19:04:00.000-07:00

Saturday the lizard prince and I sat down at his hidey hole (which happens to be catty-corner from the house the Smart Half and I were trying to buy when we moved here) and I thrashed out about 10 songs on the geetar. Some are mine. Some Cracker, New Model Army, Jesse Colin Young, Dwight Yoakum, Therapy? It was mostly just to get some stuff recorded finally. By thrashed out I mean I just sat down and got as far as I could through some of these and then kept going even after losing it. There may be a couple that are worth sharing. If that's the case, I'll put it on ye old Butcher page. It felt pretty good, though. He didn't realize I knew as many songs as I do. Well, when I'm stuck in the back of the stage playing blues bass for three years, I guess it's hard to tell I can play anything else.

mommy can I go out and kill

2008-09-04T16:21:00.000-07:00

I don't care what anyone says. Glenn Danzing had one hell of a voice for a punk band. I think Lee Ving did, too.

(The Misfits)

(Lee Ving)

Thank you, pb!

2008-09-04T16:02:00.000-07:00

Paul has quit maintaining OrBlogs

Thank you for running such a great resource for as long as you did!

GPA

2008-09-04T08:41:00.001-07:00

Did I mention that coming into the fall term at school I have a 3.43 GPA? Those three numbers and a dot just make me smile from one ear to the other.

It's the small things, you know.

breadfan

2008-09-03T16:26:00.000-07:00

I love jamming this guitar intro on my bass. Djeef and I used to play it a lot together. Metallica's version. It's only been in the last few years that I was able to find a taped copy of the original Budgie song. And here it is. Rad.

Gutted

2008-09-02T22:36:00.000-07:00

The place where we hold our jams was in a fire early this morning. One side is a restaurant and one side is the bar. The restaurant caught fire in the kitchen. The entire building didn't burn down, but the restaurant is closed now, as is the bar. I guess the ceiling in the bathroom and poker area of the bar collapsed. All of the blues society's equipment was safe, and so were the bartenders who were working at the end of their shifts. All the bartenders there are so super cool, I'm really happy none of them were hurt. I could deal with busted and burned equipment, but would be absolutely bummed if one of them had gotten hurt. But I'm bummed anyway, as now we have no jam place and the world is poorer for the loss of that place. Great owners at the bar. I don't know the restaurant owners, but they had a bustling little place going there with pretty good food and a friendly wait staff, who are now out their jobs, as well.

yay

2008-09-02T06:43:00.000-07:00

the Fo is fine. Whew. Came this --> <-- close to a very expensive repair. I added TWO GALLONS of coolant to it (8 quarts. Capacity is 9.6 quarts). Started it. Got it warmed up. Turned it off. Went looking for leaks. Found the culprit at the block inlet pipe. No other fluids in places they shouldn't be. (ie no coolant in the oil. No oil in the coolant. No coolant burning in the cylinders. No exhaust coming out the radiator fill up hole. Etc). Everything smelled right.

I have an irrational fear of blown head gaskets and warped heads. Have dealt with both just one too many times in other cars. The Fo was running extremely poorly, very hot, with a lot of pinging, and getting hot in less than a mile's worth of driving. All of these are symptoms of stuff getting into where it isn't.

I had reminded the Smart Half when we got it to check everything on it once a week, just because of the problems these had. This is HIS vehicle. He did not. I should have just let it go to fucked up so he could have the joy of dealing with it, but then I got smart myself and realized it wouldn't be him dealing with, but me. As usual.

He admitted to not checking a single thing on it in four months. I could have slapped him.

a little disappointed

2008-08-24T08:23:00.000-07:00

The '92 4runners had a recall for head gasket problems. Ours had been fixed before we bought it. I've talked to other owners of 4runners who said Toyota was great about dealing with this problem, multiple times. Having the repair blow out as well and then having that fixed, as well.

Which is good, because the (previously repaired) head gasket in ours blew out a couple of days ago.

I've been a Toyota fan for a long time. Been driving them regularly since '88. They could pretty much do no wrong in my eyes. Let's hope they live up to it.

But, in general, the Fo has been kind of a disappointment to me. It just feels wrong.

how not to keep your books

2008-08-23T12:55:00.000-07:00

One of my friends worked at a local nightclub that's run by a complete moron. We knew this prior to the weekend, but she got laid off and went to go apply for unemployment yesterday. And found out there's no record of her working for this guy. Even though she isn't an under-the-table employee. He's been taking out her FICA, SS, etc every week, and pocketing it.

Fucking slimebag.

I've never liked the dude much. He just gave me the heebie-jeebies, and he's done some things to other employees that I thought was pretty despicable. They run a jam down there once a week but I rarely went and when I did I only grudgingly handed any money over to the place.

Well, apparently he has managed to get away with it- other employees who went to file for unemployment and didn't get it didn't pursue it any further than a shrug and an "oh well", but this friend of mine, she's a pitbull... She's calling BOLI on Monday.

I've run into some pretty shady business practices in KF. I know it's not confined to KF, but man it's just more prevalent here I guess.

another great jam

2008-08-22T09:15:00.001-07:00

yeah we have these all the time! hahaha! I thought it was great. I got to jam with the guy who runs the sound at the Ragland. He's pretty damn talented. And got to play "Fisherman's Blues", which I'm always up for playing. Who can resist a Waterboys song!?

red zone

2008-08-21T10:27:00.000-07:00

Front page story in today's Herald & News is the Red Zone. The Red Zone 330,000 acres (approximately) of (mostly dead) forest between Bly and Paisley.

Save the Trees, Kill a Forest doesn't seem to have been working very well.

the pants

2008-08-21T09:41:00.000-07:00

This is the first pair we made. I picked the fabric. I love batik style prints and so any of these that have them I probably picked the material for.

Yesterday we picked up a sewing machine at Goodwill for $20. It is in the shop getting a tuneup currently. Once we dig Nat's machine out of storage, the Goodwill one will be mine.

I'm looking around online for places to buy hemp and bamboo fabric. I am going to do some printing on unbleached cotton for some of our pants. Man that bamboo and hemp stuff is expensive ($17 a yard!!! and that's cheap!!). That's what I would like to make some of the pants from, though.

The first pair I'll be making myself are for my Smart Half, out of flannel, long legs. I will probably be starting those Sunday night.

pay me for the notes

2008-08-21T09:31:00.000-07:00

I knew it would happen eventually. If I kept going to the jams, kept expanding the group of people I know who play, avoided getting a rep as someone hard to work with...I really am not hard to work with when it comes to music. I make frowny faces while playing some songs and grumble about some others, but I'm pretty easy going, actually. I show up early and get set up, don't get falling-down drunk very often, and don't fight with the patrons. What more could a band ask for?!

I've been asked to play bass in one of the bands around here that is working. Not my favorite music, but then not all the music I hate, either. The guys seem jolly enough.

Finally. I'll be starting in early September (my first gig with them will be during the weekend of Sept 5/6). This is how I'll be paying for school this semester, too.

One of the things they liked about me was that I played pretty much whatever they threw at me at the jam one night. How I do that is my little secret, but the only people that regularly stump me are the guys who want to play jazz-type jams.

Pillory me if you so desire, but I don't get much jazz. I like the early jazz, but more modern stuff that came after, hmm.. the 50s I guess, makes my brain asplode.

@!#$!%#

2008-08-20T10:40:00.000-07:00

a short run of the posters for the festival came in yesterday.

I hate them. I hate the logo. I hate the design. I hate that there's black script written over black areas of the print. I hate the numerous punctuation errors strewn all over it. I hate that it looks like someone threw a bunch of clip art at a piece of paper.

Of course it's irrational of me to be this hostile to a piece of graphic design work. But, it looks like crap.

I called in the errors to our prez. No one proofed it before it went to print.

more about pants

2008-08-19T04:09:00.000-07:00

Screamin Natalie and I eyeballed the fishermen's pants today, went out and picked a fine little fabric and some pattern-making stuff, and 5 hours later we had another pair without taking mine apart.

Well, ok, they aren't pants, they're shorts. But anyway, now another pair is wandering around the locale.

And I didn't sew very much, because I don't know how to use a sewing machine (but I can hone your cylinders for you...), but I helped make the pattern, pinned it on the fabric, and made efforts to cut in a straight line. Also I ironed. I threaded the needle (correctly, even, and more than once) and figured some other stuff out on the machine. That's plenty sewing enough for me. I can sew by hand pretty well, but never was able to master a machine. Well I may have, had anyone taught me, which nobody did and it never mattered much to me one way or the other. Screamin Natalie is determined to show me how to sew, though. I showed her my attempt at crochet from a couple of years ago- the 2-yard long rope of red yarn. She laughed. Yeah but I can still hand-pack wheel bearings like nobody's bidness.

I have pics of the pants we made. They'll be here eventually. Got a lot of puppy pics since she's caring for a dog that was abandoned, pregnant, at her neighbors house. These little guys are cute as hell. Part brindle coat pit bull (not sure which type- the kind with the pointy head instead of the blockhead) and part Rhodesian Ridgeback. They're all colored like their mom but have their dad's eyes. Which always look at us humans as if we were some tall, hairless idiots.

We probably are. If we were smart, maybe we'd lick our own asses from time to time.

the number 42

2008-08-18T08:50:00.000-07:00

It was pretty sweet yesterday to get our power bill and see that the total we owe for the last billing cycle was $42.00.

That was for 429 Kwh over 31 days.

Haven't used the dryer much. It makes the house hot, and then we have to use the AC. So by hanging out our laundry and then dropping it on the fluff setting for 10 minutes in the evening, I killed off close to $60 off our bill. By keeping the dryer off its heat settings, the house has been cooler, so we don't have to use the AC much.

Other things may have finally added up- all of our lights are the new style bulbs now and I revert to my mother and go around making sure they are off if we aren't using them. Always have kind of done that but not so vigilant as lately about it. One computer has not been used much so it's been off about a month. I have been playing more acoustic. Really i have no idea how much two hours of playing either through a 25 watt amp or a 100 watt amp costs, and I didn't switch to save electricity, it's just that the acoustic is always ready to go. The electric always involves dinking around with a cord, or the inputs have loosened up or some other bullshit.

how do you know?

2008-08-17T00:51:00.000-07:00

I suppose my suspicions about people may be well-founded. They often seem unreasonable, but then I find out that the little voice in my head was right.

We're lied to from all quarters, all the time. Politicians, especially, of all stripes, just lie right to our faces and we suck it right up, and even yell about the other guy lying, but somehow manage to be blind to the fact that the guy we like is probably lying, too. Or the people who purport to have the truth... they may be lying. All these people running around calling the other guy a liar, are liars themselves. It doesn't matter if they have a D or an R next to their name, they're lying. About something. Pick something. Are you completely sure that your favorite is telling you the absolute truth? Would you bet your life on it? Then why get all drooly and out of breath about them? I don't even think there's any truth to be told anymore, to be my own brand of honest. Who the hell knows just what is and what is not total fabrication anymore? Even facts are fabricated and trotted out.

can i get a friggin halleluja

2008-08-16T13:39:00.000-07:00

My final grade in the MTH20 class was a B.

Thursday it was cold in hell.

headstock

2008-08-11T05:13:00.001-07:00

my Epiphone rests on the Upper Klamath

a very old cycle

2008-08-07T09:38:00.000-07:00

I'm reading a book called "This Realm of England". Yeah, another history book. This one covers England from 1399 to 1688. The old cycle I refer to happened in England during the 1500s, when raising sheep for wool production became profitable. All these people with land that had previously been used for growing food switched to using the land for running sheep. At the same time, silver from Spain's colony of Bolivia was flooding into Europe.

"Despite the false simplicity of economic determinism, the fact remains that a growing population, inflated prices, and an insatiable demand for wool reversed the social and economic cycle prevailing before 1460. They transformed the fifteenth-century pattern of land plenty, labor shortage and high wages into land hunger, labor surplus and rising rents. Behind changing economic design loomed the millions of sheep, which outnumbered humans by three to one." (pg 68)

Sheep... ethanol... silver... oil...

anyway I just thought that was interesting and wanted to share it with the class. :)

and she got a book

2008-08-07T09:22:00.000-07:00

Because Naranja had given me such awesome pants, I had to find something at least as neat for her. I headed to the local museum in hopes of finding a sort of local history book with a lot of pictures. Her reading of English isn't as good as how well she can speak it. What I did find for her was a book of photographs from around Oregon. Of the land. I love these books- they show that Oregon is not just the green-weeping west of the cascades. That we have a painted desert, and both coastal and inland dunes, and a billion kinds of birds, and rocky wastelands and both evergreen and deciduous woods and forests, plains and wetlands. She really liked it and showed me the things she'd already seen here.

I have promised to go to Thailand to visit them. I have always wanted to see Thailand. My grandparents spent a lot of time there before I was born, and in their house were always great books about it, great objects to look at and contemplate. As a little, little kid, the stuff was wonderfully alien and fascinating to me. It still is. I want to see the wats, and feel the silks and hear the music, and the language and the alphabet.

comfiest pants in the world

2008-08-06T23:03:00.000-07:00

Got to meet dad's girlfriend. I call her Naranja ("orange" in Spanish), because that's how I remember her name.. which is kind of similar sounding.

She brought my aunt and I both these Thai fishermen's pants... I just went and looked them up.

If everyone was wearing these pants, there would be no wars. I do firmly believe that.

Anyway, I like Naranja. She's the shortest person I know. Like, half as tall, literally, as my dad. But she's super nice and all that important stuff.

She got a dad's wild-ride-land-of-the-cowboys tour of the west. They landed in LA, drove to Vegas, drove to New Mexico (i think?), Colorado (Vail and Durango), cut west to Elko, then Klam, then down to Rogue River, and today, off to San Francisco, then back to Los Angeles.

She saw the Grand Canyon, Vegas, the huge desert that stretches from east of the I5 all the way to pretty much west Texas, the deepest lake in the Western US, the biggest lake in the WEstern US (or is that Salt Lake? Nevermind, she saw that too), volcanoes, lava flows, snow, four national parks although I am not sure of which four except Crater Lake and Grand Canyon. Rogue River, Lower Animus River, Colorado River, Klamath River. The Rockies. The Coast Range. The Alvord Desert. What a great trip. They stayed in a 3 million dollar condo in Vail, and a rathole in Tuba City. Local brews were tasted at every stop where they were available. I found out Pad Thai is only Pad Thai if it has shrimp in it. If it's another meat-thing, it's something else.

friend's kid is missing

2008-08-06T19:27:00.000-07:00

Well, I haven't seen this friend in over a decade, but once a friend, always a friend in my book. It's terrible that Jacob is missing. Here is the information: Especially important if you happen to be in or around Reno, NV. pictures are at the myspace page

Missing Child
Sparks Police Department (775) 353-2231
Case #: 08-10242

Location Last Seen: Boulder Creek Apt. – Clear Acre/Sun Valley Blvd.

Last Seen Wearing: Dark colored shirt and pants / Black tennis shoes (airwalk brand)
Date of Disappearance: 7/25/08
Name: Jacob Anthony Callan
Nicknames: Jake
Date Of Birth: 02/09/93 – 15 years old
Gender: Male
Race: White
Height: 5 ft, 9 in
Weight: 180 lbs
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Brown
Wears Glasses: Yes (but was not wearing them when he was last seen)
Hearing Impaired: No
Birthmarks: none
Scars: none
Tattoos: none
Piercings: None
Medical Issues: Has eczema type rash
If you see this child, please call 911 IMMEDIATELY.

Refer to Above Case #
Mother: Kat Callan (c) 775-954-6309

From KC;

"This is my stepson Jacob. He is currently missing in the RENO NV area.

Please understand we only heard about this tonight. It is Tuesday August 5th, 2008. We received this in email from his mother Katrina. We have been out of town for the last 3 days while Ian had eye surgery. I beg you, I implore you -- PLEASE pass this on. The police are saying he is a possible run-away: but nobody has seen him, and according to Katrina, he never reached his intended friend's house -- where he said he was going.

We'll update when we can, & will try and keep a blog running full steam on any updates on myspace -- at Ian's page www.myspace.com/ianddaniels.

Please, please pass this on, we so desperately need your help! Ian & KC Daniels

We also ask that if you see anyone, any boy that looks like Jake, (or even like Ian) PLEASE CALL 911!!!!"

never planned on the bombs in the sand

2008-08-05T11:11:00.000-07:00

I've recently become a fan of the Drive By Truckers. Yeah, they have been around for a while, but it does take me some time to listen to EVERYTHING I (can) get my hands on.

But "Dress Blues" is the song that got me looking around for more of their stuff. There's a version on Youtube that's very stark and beautiful - much more than the album version.

I'm learning it on the geetar. I can even sing it pretty well. It's in the right key for me I guess.

And now my younger brother is joining the Army. My youngest cousin, also, landed in the elite rangers. Other cousins, been out and back again from Afghanistan and Iraq a couple of times.

now i see what's going on

2008-08-04T08:08:00.000-07:00

nobody reads actual articles online. They just read headlines. That's where a lot of people get all their news information. Headlines. Comments on stories where you can comment are full of people who just read the headline and say something... stupid.

scramble, like verruckte

2008-08-02T07:36:00.000-07:00

ok sorry there's no umlaut there, and i can't remember if there is supposed to be one anyway.

Got an email from Dad on Frida "Am in Colorado. En route. Should be there the 4th. Will call you when I get close"

I thought I had until the 6th! Haha! I'm gonna be cleaning all day tomorrow and when I get back from the show today. weeee.

dear anonymous jerkoff

2008-08-01T19:15:00.000-07:00

Well actually that's all that really needed to be said.

welcome, all ye, to the Temple of Suck

2008-08-01T09:03:00.000-07:00

The folks who brought you Faster Than The World a couple of years ago have started another mess. The Temple of Suck

I'm a contributor there, so stop in once in a while. We've been talking about food lately. My contribution is not there yet, but give me a free hour over the weekend and it will be.

thing that stuck

2008-08-01T07:31:00.000-07:00

At the jam last night I was asked to join another band. This one's a little closer to what I enjoy. So we exchanged numbers and will see what happens. Have to pay for school now. hahaha! It may just be as backup, but five gigs will pay off this semester. Two more will pay for the books.

Dad is coming in August 4. A little nerrrrrvous. Well, he knows I'm a shitass housekeeper too.

books

2008-07-30T21:52:00.000-07:00

over the last week, I read a few books. "Arthur & George", "Songs in Ordinary Time", "Skywater", "The Book of Ruth", "The Memory Keeper's Daughter" and "Water for Elephants". They all came in a box from my mom. They were mostly pretty good. I really liked "Water for Elephants". "Skywater" was sad. They were all kind of sad. Populated by sad people and grotesque people and thieves and liars and alcoholics.

Last night I started an American History text book published in 1911,1917,1920 by David Saville Muzzey. It's pretty incredible. I mean, to read it. To read the attitudes of the time, held in this old book. If you ever want to see how much progress we've made as a country in our ways of thinking about non-white people, read a history book from the early part of the 20th century.

I'm talking about paragraphs like this:
"21. The Northern Tribes....They had a great variety of games and dances, solemn and gay; and they loved to bask idly in the sun, too, like the Mississippi negro of today." (pg 20)"

vile

2008-07-30T21:38:00.000-07:00

southern oregon teen idol

2008-07-29T16:28:00.000-07:00

I dunno.. is that what it's called?

Tam's daughter is in it again this year. She didn't really want to but got goaded into it by a snotty parent that was not her own. The parent issued a challenge in a rather rude manner, akin to "Not going to the dance because you can't wear the same dress again?". Yah that kind of rude. I wish it was okay to slap the shit out of people like that.

So the kid took the bait and is in the Top 3 in week 4. Snotty Parents kid fell by the wayside after round 2.

Tam's kid is as close to my own kid as I'll probably ever get. I've gotten to watch her grow up from age 5. She has always been engrossed by music. Bad Company was one of her favorite bands when she was 6. She plays guitar, plays bass, sings, writes music. She's just a super-talented, super-smart kid. She was around bands from the time she was 7 and has sung in front of a huge (for Coos Bay) crowd or two at the Fun Festival and the County Fair with ML when she was 10 or so. She knocked 'em dead with Aretha's "Respect" at the Fun Festival. She doesn't have that irritating broadway show style or Mariah Carey clone voice that so many girls have. She sings from her feet, I swear. She hits the notes and doesn't bother wavering around them or anything like that. She has a really strong voice. She's a blues singer, whether she knows it or not. She's even got that strut.

This year, I hope she can win. Because I'd love to see her leave the Snotty Parents (and so many of them are) with their jaws on the ground. She's had an unusual upbringing that I know some people tsk tsk over but she has the right attitude- that it isn't her problem if certain people don't like her. She's been working since she was probably 12, helping her mom at the shop and down at the farmer's market in the summertime. She has goals, she has steps laid out to meet those goals, and she attains them. I totally admire her for that (seeing as I lack that gene myself).

So I really have no doubt that she can win the thing. I know why she didn't the last two years and it had nothing to do with talent, but politics.

Anyway kiddo, I know you stop in here once in a while, and I'll drop in on your myspace page later, but hey - big giant stupid hippie hug with a side of squeal, otay? I'm stoked you consider me one of your moms.

cash in hand

2008-07-29T08:31:00.000-07:00

aaaahhhhh.... some of the pressure is off.

Yesterday I got my first copyediting/proofreading job in hand. $75 worth. To check over is a manuscript for a book of poetry.

Poetry! How to proofread it?! Shouldn't be too hard. I'll look through it, see what the style is and mainly go for glaring spelling errors. Grammar can slide. Since my favorite poet of all time is ee cummings, I'm somewhat already on that plane as far as whacked out usage goes. Far and wee!

The author has invited me to their film society meetup, also, because she is looking for writers, musicians and anyone else that gets glued to a movie in any form. She also thinks the script writers would be happy to have my services available. She is also going to bring me to a local Women in Business meeting and see what happens there.

Also, while waiting in the parking lot at safeway yesterday I picked up a paying bass gig in September.

ALSO(!) I have been added to a list (consisting of two other people) a local attorney has for legal transcription.

See, I knew something would stick. I just had to keep throwing stuff. Throw it out there, then stand around and look good.

and last night's jam...

2008-07-25T15:44:00.001-07:00

it was kind of hit and miss. It was hot as fuck in that bar. I played drums first set. And I probably lost a pound or two in sweat. Then played bass. I had let this guy play my bass. He was irritating, demanding, high-and-mighty. I wanted to punch him. He finishes playing and I checked my tuning. Good lord. A full step flat on all the strings except the D, which is down a step and a half. Fucking jackass. This after he spent 15 minutes tuning it, which probably wasn't necessary because I tuned it before I went down there and it stays in tune. Stupid asshole. He's never touching it again. And I'm pretty cool about letting people play my bass.

So, played for a set or two and then someone wants to play Hotel California. Which I hate. And hate it enough that I can't even stand to listen to it long enough to learn it, so I don't know it very well. I'm not playing it. The guy gets all huffy. Dude, he plays it every fucking week, at every fucking jam, every damn gig he plays, and it still sounds godddamn horrible when he plays it. I don't know if it's his tone or the timbre he likes to have his git set at or what, but it's like nails on a chalkboard to me. Painful. Makes my ears hurt. And still he wants to play it, even after hearing "No fucking way" from me 3 times. I'm, as usual, the only bass player there. Apparently I'm one of the few that anyone likes playing with, too. Which is nice.

But yeah it was a damn sauna in that place last night. Which makes me grouchy and irritable and then having to listen to the one guys screeching guitar tone and the same crap he ALWAYS plays.. I wanted even moreso to punch someone. I spent most of my time outside. But lots of people gave me compliments and that's always nice to hear.

And i have to add this. Just because you play louder than everyone else doesn't make you a good guitar player. Loud is really only good when you have the tone to back it up. If your instrument sounds like an elephant on crack, best to keep your volume down or risk looking like a total asshole. Jeeezus. Running your 20 watt amp with a handful of tubes in it at full volume doesn't sound as good as the guy next to you with a Marshall 4 x 10 run off a J-series amp on 2. It just doesn't. Face it. And walking off in a huff because you sound like fartz.. well that's just fucking funny if your older than 12.

haze

2008-07-25T15:36:00.000-07:00

ready to float/paddle/paddle like crazy. Sleeping bag, tent, change of clothes, toothbrush...checkcheckcheck and check.

respirator. ?
Damn near need one.

the day started clear and warmish. I brought home a stray from the jam last night and we and one of his friends spent the morning drinking coffee and giggling. Then I dropped them off at the Safeway to begin their own grand adventure. 1 o'clock I was at le dentiste as scheduled.

I came out at 2:15 and you couldn't see Hogback. You couldn't see KAGO hill. You couldn't see a mile down S. Sixth street. Wind blowing from the west. Where the fuck is the fire? Go look online.. where the hell can you find info about fires? Nothing in InciWeb. Nothing in nifc. WTF? None of the TV channels have anything online. None of the local papers or radio stations do either. Hello? I'd check the Tay-Vay but our cable is off.

We're putting in at Frehn ranch (not sure if it's Frane or Frehn, but there you are), which is westish of us. Hope it isn't what's on fire.

well that was pretty damn cool

2008-07-24T13:27:00.001-07:00

I went down to the engineering company today to see my picture.

Is that effing tardlike of me or what?

Anyway, there it is a the top of the stairs, the first thing you see when you come into the office. Kind of a thrill to see that. Kind of like the first hit of crack kind of thrill, actually. The one that ends your life as you knew it, because after the first one, you just spend all your time trying to get it back.

on a wall

2008-07-24T08:59:00.000-07:00

a few weeks ago, my friend called me up and asked what kind of resolution the camera got. The engineering company she works for needed some shots of one of the buildings they worked on at OIT, one that could be blown up to 20 x 60. Mine would do it. So we went over and I got probably 50 pictures from various angles, then handed over my card so they could pick one. Normally I'd go through and at least pull the ones that were terrible, but they needed it in a hurry.

And they really liked two of them, but one is hanging on their wall in the office now (my name is not on it yet, but i guess she's still working on it) and it may go into a brochure.

So that's pretty damn cool. I think.

where's my mind

2008-07-23T07:00:00.000-07:00

Ok i guess since no one told me the actual date of our rafting trip this year, I can let my self off the hook just a little. It's this weekend. For some reason I was thinking it was in August some time.

Which threw a wrench into my works. I intended to play a shitload of Toadies on my show this weekend. All I have. Some 60 songs or so. In honor of them touring and putting out the new album and all.

I will have to console myself with just jamming it on the acoustic on the banks of the mighty Klamath on Friday and Saturday nights I guess.

I was really looking forward to just playing the Toadies. It's rare that I have three straight hours to devote to just listening to a catalog of a band I love. Owell. Next Saturday morning.

The Toadies are coming! The Toadies are coming!

2008-07-22T07:47:00.001-07:00

Not to Klamath, of course.

But they will be in Sacramento, San Fran and Portland. So I'm scheming ways to get to see them. It'd probably be in Sacto, because it's closest.

Also, The Toadies have a new album out, called "No Deliverance". The single is up on their myspace page.

Good stuff, Maynard.

1942 Harley WLA pictures

2008-07-20T10:57:00.001-07:00

I finally got them up.

pleased with myself

2008-07-17T13:06:00.000-07:00

And it's ok to be pleased with one's self on occasion.

I dusted off some brain cells and pulled 7 or 8 New Model Army songs out of my acoustic yesterday. I learned them back when I first got a guitar (about 2 years after I got my first bass) and only come back to them once in awhile, like if I'm jammin alone on the porch or something. Their music still has a profound effect on me, 23 years after first hearing "51st State". It comes back easy. I know the music backwards and forwards, knew it before I learned to play it. Know all the words for every song on every album from the Vengeance album/EP to Strange Brotherhood. There have been albums released since Strange Brotherhood, but I don't have them.

When all my records were stolen from me in Arizona, the ones I was bummed out the most about were the NMA ones. Didn't care about the Metallica ones on Metalblade. Didn't care about the colored vinyl Misfits singles or the green double-live UK Subs album. Didn't really miss the BGK or Ill Repute. But to this day I am still angry about the NMA being taken. By a jackass ex-boyfriend who thought Jackyl and Love/Hate were the epitome of good music.

RCR pictures

2008-07-13T15:44:00.000-07:00

The batch of the riders is up first. This is my favorite one. Click on it to see the whole picture.

Good times with Rip City Riders

2008-07-13T09:40:00.000-07:00

I was out at their wangdang doodle yesterday for NINE hours. I didn't expect to be there that long, but there it is. The jam band played for two hours and then we let the final band use our PA so we were kind of stuck there til they were finished.

But it was great! Great music, great bikes, great cars, good food, jolly people, freestylers on ramps...

I got assloads of pictures. I will deal with them later.

It was hot as hell on the stage yesterday when we were playing. The band before us boiled even more than we did. The stage faced west. So that's all anyone needs to know.

Who wants a clean house

2008-07-11T10:36:00.001-07:00

Sometimes when I'm actually home during the daytime and don't have to do anything, and can spend an hour or so turning my brain to mush in front of the Tay-Vay, I'll watch "Clean House", with Niecy. Of course, I should be cleaning my OWN house... but the fact of the matter is that I am a shit-ass housekeeper and it's all I can do to keep our little house looking even moderately presentable. Luckily, most of our friends are also shit-ass housekeepers so the embarrassment factor isn't too high. And it never fails that immediately after vacuuming, one of the cats will pop out a big ol' hairball in the middle of the floor. So sometimes I wonder what the fucking point is anyway. Who's great idea was it to put carpet in houses in the first place?

But I like "Clean House". I like it because, hey, it makes me feel better about my own lack of cleaning skills. One does not have to bushwack their way from my front door to my kitchen, or step over piles of stuff, or follow trails through the junk. There is no coating of unidentifiable funk on our stuff. Weird smells are passing, not permanent. We own a Kirby G5 and we use it. Ok, well, *I* use it. The carpet is a sort of uniform dinginess, but part of that is that we live next to a freeway and the particulates and dust gets tracked into the house- no matter how often I sweep the porch and walkway. It's just a fact of life.

I try not to bring more stuff into the house. For the most part, I have succeeded in reducing this to almost nothing... a mere trickle. And I am one who used to grab stuff off the side of the road with the idea that "I can do something with it". I even go through the crap once a month and give it away. I'm always giving shit away. Man, I haven't even seriously started in the garage yet, either, but there is always a box by the door filling up with stuff to contribute to someone else's junk habit. I don't want to deal with a garage sale, either. What I see with garage sales is that the shit floats from sale to sale, anyway. The people who used to live in this house had a garage sale every weekend, I guess. For the first six months we lived here, there were people banging on our door at weird hours on the weekend wondering where the damn garage sale was. I don't know! It isn't here! Shove off! And some of the passive-aggressive neighbors (how I hate people like that) with "It would be nice if those people still lived here and had their garage sale". Get the fuck out of my yard. Right now. (of note- I rarely respond to passive-aggressive behavior. I busted the smart half on it the other day. He didn't realize it was what he was doing. With me, you had better tell me straight up what you want, or I ignore you.)

So, thank you Niecy for the constant reminder that it isn't so terrible in my house. It isn't so great, but it isn't bad.

house in hua hin

2008-07-10T08:33:00.000-07:00

My dad just sent a note over that he and his lady friend bought a nice little pad in Hua Hin, Thailand.

So, yeah, really, must get more income so we can go visit.

4th of july pics

2008-07-09T23:52:00.000-07:00

I got the pictures of the blues society jam band put up at our KBS myspace site:
KBS on MySpace

And here are fireworks pictures I took:

bro not crispy

2008-07-09T07:23:00.000-07:00

yay Rude called last night to let me know he was back from his first firefighting gig of the season. He worked out of a base camp in Chester, CA (between Susanville and Redding on HWY 36. I think he may have been on the Corral Fire but not sure, forgot to ask him last night, he was just checking in and letting me know he was all right. Like, I'm a mom or something. lol.

Pretty neat guy

2008-07-09T07:09:00.000-07:00

One of the coolest people around town that I know lives in a trailer court on the weird side of town (off Wiard street, which, although I know it's pronounced "Wy-ard", I will always call it "weird"). He's a disabled Viet Nam vet who served as a medic. Last year he decided to turn his life around and stopped taking the gnarly pain killers (methadone, oxycontine and morphine) that had been prescribed to him, took up swimming and biking and has made some great progress with his health. He also has it in his mind to be energy-independent and is working on various things to achieve this. He makes his own wine and rigged up a giant swamp cooler to cool his trailer. Giant, as in, the swamp cooler was probably on an office building before he got it, and now it sits outside his little trailer and blasts cold air in like nobody's business.

Yesterday I went over to say Hi (which I hadn't done in almost a month) and have a conversation and see what his newest deal was. Turns out he's been running a hydrogen generator on one of his cars to augment the gasoline. The experiment vehicle is his Trooper, but he also has an older Suburban with a 400 ci engine in it that he uses to haul stuff around in. My guess is that in town the 400 gets about 8-10 mpg. His mileage on the Trooper increased by about 8 with the small, homemade hydrogen generator. He put both of the generators together that he has for me yesterday and man it is something to watch. I didn't have the camera with me or I would have documented it all.

I'm going back over there over the weekend probably because I do want to document this thing.

tastiest place in town

2008-07-07T17:41:00.000-07:00

Two!

One is the dollar taco stand two blocks up the road from us. It's been there a year and today the smart half wanted mexican food so I told him to make a run up the block and get a cheap taco or six. He came back with a pounder burrito that was $5 and apparently worth every dollar. Even better because it's so close.

the other one, a downtown mainstay for two decades, Swan's Bistro. My first time in there today. Owned by my fellow crazy people. They crammed me full of food, poured a 40 oz iced latte down my gullet and then booted me out the door for good conversation and enjoyment of sunshine. GO THERE! They make those wonderful tea-marbled hardboiled eggs. One of the cooks spent years in Asia and came back with mad cooking skillz. it's the only place you can buy crepes in this town. Hellz yeah. My new hangout.

Where the hell can I find some of that?

2008-07-07T10:27:00.000-07:00

Recently a friend sent me a link to this article, Big Pharma is in a Frenzy to Bring Cannabis-Based Medicines to Market"

(on a side note, I hate references to "Big" anything. Oil, tobacco, pharmaceuticals... almost as much as I hate the much overused and beaten to death phrase "Wake-up call" and firmly believe that journalists, politicians and other useless hacks who use these phrases ought to have their mouths duct-taped and a smear of Vicks vapo-rub placed under each eye as well as on their upper lip, while someone chants all the wake-up calls at them through a bullhorn, a foot away, as the chanter hits a helium balloon every 90 seconds)

Anyway- speaking of useless hacks, we can add Britain's PM Gordon Brown to that slimy hole filled with total morons, as he says "I don't think that the previous studies took into account that so much of the cannabis on the streets is now of a lethal quality and we really have got to send out a message to young people -- this is not acceptable," (here, but also quoted in the first article.

Gordon Brown, as if you'd ever come across this, but if someone can find me, or anyone else, even ONE instance of someone smoking a j rolled of modern, "lethal" pot that resulted in that person dying on the spot, please forward it. Not someone who got in a deadly car accident while stoned and drunk. Someone whose death was a direct result of one dose of lethal marijuana. Similar to a heroin or cocaine overdose.

Find that, and my opinion of politicians might change just a little bit. Til then, shit-spewing, hand-in-my-pocket-taking-my-money-away, bullshit artists all, they shall remain. And a note to other politicians who are talking out their asses about things they know nothing about- sirs, better to keep your bonehole shut and be thought a fool than speak up and remove all doubt.

the quiet

2008-07-07T08:22:00.000-07:00

When taking those pictures at the wildlife refuge I had to also stop and listen. Because there was silence, except for the sounds of the birds. Living next to the highway in town is noisy and you get used to it, but to enjoy near-total silence is always a treat. It makes my ears ring.

In the spring the bird sounds are louder, more raucous, and there are a lot more different birds. The geese are always especially loud, and the ducks. You'll hear the occasional crane or heron making noise, or a cow mooing nearby, the blip-blip-splash of someone on the water catching lunch, or the scraw of predatory birds. This time of the year, the population at the marsh is changing. The mating is finished for the most part, the little fuzzy birds are not quite so little and fuzzy but still grouped with moms and little families.

But now, when it's hot and desolate and still, the marsh is mostly quiet. There is rustling in the tules, some splashing, the whoop-whoop sound that the wings of a big bird flying overhead make.

I would suggest to anyone traveling up or down the I5 in Oregon to get the hell off it and get on the 97. It's prettier and you can stop and check out things like the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge. You can also stop and see the Butte Valley National Grasslands.

Personally, every time I have to drive on the 5, I think to myself, "Fuck I hate this particular freeway and just about every stupid fast-food town that dots it".

Camp Tulelake

2008-07-07T07:00:00.000-07:00

Whenever I get out to Tulelake I try to stop at the camp. You can't go on the grounds, but you can stand at the fence and take pictures. Out of some 30 buildings, I guess, there are maybe 5 or 6 still there. Camp Tulelake was a sort of overflow camp for the larger, main camp at Newell.

George Takei was at the main camp with his parents.

CA 161

2008-07-06T10:38:00.001-07:00

I had to run out to Tulelake early this morning and took the opportunity to take my time and get a few pictures. This is one of my favorites I got this morning.

all the days

2008-07-05T12:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday went pretty great. I didn't play, but I'm alright with that. I didn't really want to play anyway. I wanted to go see what there was to see. Got a lot of pics and some videos and handed out some flyers and schmoozed. Tomorrow will be the first day in a week i'll be able to sleep in past 9, probably. hope so, at least.

see, yah, nothing too exciting.

4th of july

2008-07-03T14:25:00.000-07:00

welp. nothing particularly spectacular planned on our end. I will be playing with the blues society on the courthouse steps throughout the day, starting around 10AM. That thing turns into a big old parabolic bowl around 3o'clock. It just cooks your ass.

They close Main street at 8 or 9AM so we have to get all the eq down there and unloaded around 7:30 probably. weeee! At least it'll be cool. Like, soopa cool. I love the mornings here in the summer. If there was anything to do here at night, I'd go back to being nocturnal and then just sleep in the daytime.

math post #7 (probably)

2008-07-02T11:11:00.000-07:00

It's still just mostly incomprehensible scratchings to me.

I think I must be in a weird place. I do well at whole number, basic math, which is why I didn't go into MTH10. But I'm struggling with MTH20, which is probably the equivalent of high-school pre-algebra.

I work on a concept, work on applying the concept (through the problems and study guides in the book), then flail stupidly when actually doing the problems and come up with answers so far off the mark I can't even imagine what the fuck I was thinking or where it all went to shit.

When I do my homework and check it over on my own, I'll still come up with 10-15 wrong out of 40 when we go over it the next day. If the Smart Half goes over it with me after I'm done, I get maybe 3-5 wrong. So I am having him go over it with me. I don't see the mistakes. Because I don't understand it.

We're heading into complex fractions right now. And, it's like, crap... all these numbers and lines and rules and if it's negative you do this and if it's two negatives you do this and to divide you flip and multiply and make it small and ok well you lost me there. I really pay attention in class. I write all the rules down on their own page and look at them before I start homework.

I think I get it for 30 seconds and then nothing makes sense.

But I'm going to pass the damn class.

'Bamian heading to Beijing

2008-07-02T07:55:00.000-07:00

A 2000 KU grad is on his way to the Olympics.

Way to go!