it's a dog's life

This Blog Has Left the Building

2007-03-09T14:00:00.000-06:00

That's right folks! I've finally made the migration over to Wordpressing, after 2.5 years of Blogger silliness, I finally decided that I had enough!

You can find me here!!

I Stumbled It

2007-03-04T10:19:00.000-06:00

I've been playing around with a web surfing program that's highly addicting called Stumble Upon. Weird name, but fun to use. You have to install a small tool bar to your browser that allows you to click "next" and it will send you randomly to different websites in categories of your choosing. Sounds kind of dumb I know and I was very skeptical but I've come across tons of cool websites out there, stuff you never knew existed. Once you start it's hard to stop!

Users get to add their favorite sites and everyone that stumbles on that site behind them gets to vote thumbs up or thumbs down, right from your browser. You can even choose different channels as you surf. They have communities and you get your own pages that list all your own favorited sites and you can mark people as friends or contacts based on your personal interests. I found out that it works much better with Firefox, I found several issues using it with IE 7. Give it a try, you'll like it!

Here's a couple of photos of a bronze statue that I stumbled on recently, that made me go WTF??? That's just crazy! I think it's in Denmark.

You would never see anything like that in the USA! I could just imagine an artist proposing something like that to the local city council. "You'll be able to see WHAT??? And you want us to pay for it??? Get out the tar and feathers!!!! LOL

I'm thinking about my moving my blog again and finally going over to Wordpress with my own domain. Hell, I might as well, I've got 6 different Wordpress installations running right now but half of them are used for designing templates for customers. I've been on Blogger now for about 2.5 years and I'll miss it, it's been a pretty decent home for the most part and I've made a lot of great friends here as well. It does have it's aggravations and annoyances though. I've even bought a name that I like and it's already hosted, in fact I now own 8 different domain names for my various web endeavors. The only problem is finding the time to get it set up and build a new design. Eventually!

Hope you guys are having a good weekender!

Anatomy of a Blog Template

2007-02-26T13:18:00.000-06:00

I know most of you probably won't find this very interesting but I thought I would share a few tricks that I use in my Blogger and Wordpress layouts. I believe that most people think that the vertical and horizontal lines on the background of the pages that I draw actually "hold" the text areas in place. Well, that's completely untrue in a CSS (cascading style sheets) layout, I can put the text anywhere on the page. It is true however when using a table based layout. With CSS you can place the text virtually anywhere you want on the page, the images are just there as a background decoration.

This is a Blogger template I'm working on today for my friend Desy over at Afro Nerd. He liked the first one so much he wants me to build another and set him up with a theme switcher, so visitors can switch the themes back and forth.

The first image is the original comic book cover he wanted used, but it needed a lot of Photoshop editing to make it useable. Once I was done editing the text and cropping out the unwanted sections, I drew up the entire page layout around the image, which you can see in this second image.

That image is the entire page including the heading text but it isn't quite ready for use yet, it has to be sliced up into 3 pieces to make up the different sections of the page. There's the header (top section), the content (middle section that can expand up and down as the page gets longer) and the footer to dress out the bottom of the page.

In the next 3 images you can see what each piece looks like after it's all chopped up and ready for use.
This is the header below:

The very narrow strip that makes up the center or content section actually "tiles" in all the way down the page as far as it needs to to fill out the page. Anything thicker would just be a waste of bandwidth and take longer to load.

This is the center section below:

This is the footer below:

And the footer image just caps off the ends of the columns to give the page a cleaner, finished appearance. A lot of designers leave that out and just let the columns run right off the page. That's personal preference though, most people probably never scroll all the way to the bottom anyway. Sometimes, I insert small "surprise" images in the footer to go with the theme.

There are several tricks involved in using this method to do page layouts and not too many people do it this way. I like it because it allows me to use subtle shadows and glows and complex borders and I can simulate a more 3 dimensional aspect to the layout. This helps achieve a more dynamic affect with higher visual impact. And you'll notice that it easily allows me to put the action figures in this example, in poses that makes it look like they're stepping out of the frames and overlapping into sections that you wouldn't normally see. However, a very attractive blog or web page can be built without using any images at all. Background colors and borders can all be written into the code to set the overall appearance.

If you'll notice, the sidebar will have to come way up and over the right hand side of the heading image so that it ends up just under the red title "Afro Nerd". I'll use negative top margin numbers to pull that text up to precisely where I want it within a single pixel of accuracy.

Personally, I just enjoy manipulating images in Photoshop and bringing them to life on the web, It's a lot of fun. The very first thing I do to start a design is draw up the entire page background before I write any of the code. That's just the way I do it! Hope I didn't bore you guys too much!

A Little More Like This...

2007-02-19T19:28:00.000-06:00

I'm all over the map today and I'm so busy with blog orders I can't hardly see straight. My buddy Johnny Dain has a very funny take on Britney Spears shaving her head. He thinks she's a Klingon and I think he might be right, he has pictures to prove it! He's got quite a warped sense of humor, kinda like me. LOL I did the design for his website a while back. I just wish he would post more often.

A while back Wal-Mart stole nearly $300 from my bank account by using a Mastercard debit card number that I had once used for a legitimate purchase. The billing didn't list any items purchased, just money "removed" very weird! I knew immediately it had to be someone on the store end that got into my account info because that card has never been out of my possession and to use it even online you have to have the card in hand for the 3 digit security number on the back. That means the only way they could have gotten that number was through the Wal-Mart records. I disputed it and the money was returned about a week later. My bank told me that Wal-Mart had 45 days to dispute the charge back. I kept worrying that they would give me trouble over it but I finally got notice that the grace period was passed. So I guess I get to keep MY frikkin' money, how nice of the bastards! It was a relief though, I just wish I could press charges for the theft. Can I send Wal-Mart to jail? Now that would be cool!

It's Mardi Gras here, ho-hum... LOL I have yet to go to a parade, maybe I will this weekend. I've been enjoying the King Cakes though, damn those things are so good! Chewy and gooey and delicious, just what I need for my expanding waist line. Don't swallow the plastic baby inside!

I was going thru some of my photos and came across a few that I took in New York on one of my visits to see Lisa. I don't think I ever posted them. One night we went out to watch Deni of Last Girl on Earth blog play at a gay bar near downtown New York City. They were having some kind of gay, wacky costume contest and not only was Deni playing violin but she was one of the judges of the contest. That contest was strange! The bar was strange, everything was strange! I just stayed real close to Lisa and luckily no one hit on me LOL Now that I think back about it, should I be insulted? Hmmm. We actually had quite a good time, but I don't think I would go back. hehehe

That was pretty much one of the coolest violins I've ever seen and she really can play it too! I'm looking forward to my next trip to visit Lisa and Deni and hopefully Julie too, I hope to go sometime soon.

See ya'll!! =)

Too Cold For You?

2007-02-11T07:24:00.000-06:00

UPDATE: We had a tornado blow through the New Orleans area last night that did a lot of damage but I'm fine, it didn't hit us directly. It passed about 5 miles away, the sound of the winds woke me up about 3am, very spooky! We now return you to the regularly scheduled post...

I've noticed a lot of people complaining about the deep freeze going on around most of the country, but not here! It has been so warm here lately that more often than not I'm running the A/C just to stay cool. Being that It's January and February, that sucks! Big ones! I hope that doesn't mean we're going to have a hotter than usual spring and summer ahead. I would rather be cool than hot, given the choice.

The old microwave oven, not really that old, unless you consider 5 yrs as "old" took a dump last week and refused to work. It was a pretty nice model, but it got replaced with a new one that had a burning problem, and I don't mean the food. It smelled like the innards were smoldering, like an electrical fire was going to break out at any minute. I'm not going to mention the brand name (Panasonic) but after a few days, it went back to the store for a different brand after it was realized that the acrid burning smell was getting worse. I hate having to stand by with a fire extinguisher when ever I nuke something, don't you?

The new one features some cool whiz-bang controls and does a great job, you can start this stainless-steel clad beauty up with one button push, as opposed to two on the old one. Yeah, I can just imagine the lectures... "When I was a kid, we used to have to push TWO buttons on our microwaves to heat things up. You kids today only have to push ONE. You don't know what hard work is!!"

I had a pretty nice, older Kenwood home stereo system for sale in the local paper last week. It was a receiver, 5 disc CD player and a double cassette recorder, yeah that's how old it was, freakin' cassettes. But it had remote control and it was all in awesome condition, and looked beautiful, sold the whole lot for $70. I was shocked when I learned that the girl that bought it didn't give a rats ass whether it worked or not. Just so long as it had a handsome face. It was going to become part of a movie set and wasn't even going to be plugged in. Yeah, maybe my old stereo system is gonna be famous! Maybe win an Oscar for best movie prop or sumshit, who knows? At least it can't give a long winded speech... I'll keep you guys posted...

This is one of the funniest things I've seen lately, a carbon-monoxide detector with a snooze button...

Like the new template? It's one of my creations called "Harley Grafitti" and it's a free download over at my "Free Blogger Skins" web site, yeah I give this shite away. The site has become pretty popular, get's thousands of hits daily which is pretty cool. I just thought it would be different to use one of my own freebies. LOL

The Scientific Blogging community web site is doing pretty good. It's still in beta phase but it already has some world class, famous scientific "egg head" types writing articles. Good stuff too, these guy are frikkin' schmart! I'm the official "design manager" and an admin over there. Yeah, I get to lord over a bunch of scientists. Hey! I don't like that article... "delete" LOL No, not really. I did the entire site design and layout. Cool huh? Got a hankering for some killer science, articles about global warming? Get over there and "bone" up. You can also create a personal account and get your own free science blog on the site as a columnist. How cool is that? The articles must be about science, although there is a "humor" category under "Culture".

Hope you guys are havin' a butt-kickin' weekend! =) Stay warm, or cool, or whatever...

dancin' with gators - redux

2007-02-01T10:33:00.000-06:00

Sorry folks, I'm still not feeling very well and I just heard from my doctors office this morning that I have to stay off the chemo for another 2 weeks because of severe anemia before I can continue with the injections, which sucks! So near yet so far. All I've got is a rerun of one of my favorite posts. Enjoy!

Take a bunch of cajuns, a fast boat, some waterskis and a rope and douse liberally with beer and booze and what have you got? A buncha crazeez that will do almost anything! One of our favorite pastimes was cruisin' out in a boat and finding an area where there were several alligators laying in the water near the bank. They were not hard to find at all, as they are quite plentiful. I lived in a small town named Theriot on Bayou du'Large, and I had a small house right on the waterway with about 100ft of waterfront. It had a really great view of the Intracoastal Inland Waterway and was basically slap in the middle of the swamps.

The way we played dancin' with gators was to try to hit a gator in the head with your ski or skis without falling. Yes, it does take quite a bit of nerve to purposely antagonize alligators, and be right there in the water with said gator, thats where the alcohol comes in. Actually hitting one was quite difficult because they can move or submerge a lot faster than you might think and they were really just as afraid of you as people are afraid of them. The big exception is during the time when female gators are guarding a nest of eggs, then you better be prepared to be chased or attacked. And you definitely did not want to step on one in the middle of a moonless night while out in the swamp, frog hunting, but that's a whole 'nother story.

The trick was to have someone in the boat spot ahead for a target (sleepy alligator) and point it out to you while you were being towed. The driver of the boat would then swing around in a u-turn so you could swing way out at very high speed and come around fast enough that the gator was taken totally by surprise. As I said, this was very difficult because they are quite wary of human presence but not so much afraid of boats because they pass constantly. What they are not used to however, is a crazee cajun with boards on his feet, swinging in for a kill at 50+ mph! Doing this was some of the best fun I have ever had. I never hit one myself although I tried quite a few times.

I can only recall one really good hit and that was by a buddy named Badeaux (bad-o) who crashed so hard in to the head of one that it made him flip over because his ski came to a dead stop and he kept going! He was now in the water with one VERY angry gator and he scrambled up on to the bank and ran like a mad dog. The gator meanwhile was actually scared as hell and took off up the bank and disappeared in to the swamp. Badeaux thought it was chasing him though and we kept yelling at him to run. Everytime he slowed down when he thought he was in the clear we started shouting "there it is, it's right behind you!!" from the boat and he would run some more. We kept this up until we thought he was gonna die from exhaustion and we were just dying from laughing so hard.

We nicknamed Badeaux "gator bait" and everyone called him that for years and probably still do to this day. I also had a "pet" gator for a while. He would swim by the house almost everday and beg for handouts, and we would usually toss him a hotdog or anything else we might throw from the fridge. We named him "Jaws" of course but he was fairly small and still quite young maybe 4 ft long or so. I have lived in some really cool places and living out on the bayou in southern Louisiana was one of the better places.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Very Sad News

2007-01-29T10:55:00.000-06:00

One of my dearest and best blogging buddies, Inanna, has some seriously bad news, a fire broke out at her house while she was away and she lost nearly everything including her cats. Only one of them survived. Thankfully, her and her son, Nate will be ok. Please go visit if you can and offer whatever words of comfort that come to mind, thanks.

Hurricane Katrina Update

2007-01-19T10:27:00.000-06:00

I just thought I would give you guys an update on what hasn't been done since the house was damaged by Katrina 1.5 years ago. FEMA is STILL dragging it's leaden feet on what's to be done. We still aren't sure if the house will end up being demolished and rebuilt from the ground up or if it will be repaired. The red tape involved in getting all the bureaucracies in sync has been monumental. Engineering, funding, inspections, code, and just good old-fashioned bean counting has all conspired together to make getting one single house repaired a seemingly impossible task.

Truly, we are dealing with the Ministry of Silly Walks of Monty Python fame. And, yes, these pictures are what the house still looks like after the walls have been torn out, the siding blown off and the roof damaged from the giant oak that fell on it. The air-conditioning and heating system was destroyed so we have small space heaters throughout the house and we put in several small window A/C units to make the summers more bearable.

The roof leaks in at least 3 places, it's very drafty, several windows are still broken from the wind damage and it still smells of mold from the moisture that soaked into the wood framing when it was flooded out. The last we heard was that we "might" get an answer on what's to be done in March of this year 2007.

I know that we are far from from the only people that are in this situation, but eventually it will get done. Myself, I'm hoping that the house ends up being demolished because it will never be the same after all that has happened. It's a shame but it's true.

On the more personal front, as of today I have 6 more weeks of chemotherapy to go thru before I'm done, damn I cannot wait! I've been very weak and have a difficult time coping with the very strong flu like symptoms, aching muscles and joints and the brain fog that accompanies the injections but it's all good! I'm down to the short strokes now!

WooHoo!! =) Hope you guys have a great weekend!!

Is It Just Me...

2007-01-10T23:37:00.000-06:00

Or does my gas tank really run dry faster when gas is over $3 than when the price is much lower.

Or does the traffic move slower and slower in direct relation to how late I am for an appointment.

Or do I always end up in the slowest moving line at the grocery.

Or should it be against the law to air drug commercials that don't tell you what the drug actually does.

Or are we now watching more commercials on TV than actual programming.

Or has HBO become an absolute waste of money.

Or is it just wrong to make it look like people with herpes always have more fun than everyone else.

Or has Donald Trump's hair-pie reached glorious new heights?

Or does Rosie O'donnell look just a bit toooo much like Jack Black?

Or is this the end of this silly post?

Deep Sea Dumbasses - Repost

2007-01-06T10:22:00.000-06:00

Well guys I'm so busy with blog work that I even forgot about my blog's 2 yr anniversary that passed back in November nearly 2 months ago! LOL I used to write a lot of stories about my experiences in the deep sea diving business and I haven't put any up in a long time. But today I have a rerun story from way back in my archives, one of my favorites. I hope you enjoy!

One of the funniest things I ever saw was a diver that was pretending to be working. He was supposed to be guiding an undersea pipeline about 12" in diameter into a set of saddles going up one leg of an offshore platform. There were cables attached to it from winches and a crane through sets of pulleys rigged up to handle the task. The diver in this situation was supposed to be just guiding the operation from below, giving instructions to the dive controller on how tight each line had to be to get the pipeline into position and then he would bolt the pipe into the clamp in place underwater.

But, once he had the pipe guided in to the clamp he decided he had done enough and took a little nap of sorts underwater. He was working at about 30 feet below the surface and the water was incredibly clear that day and you could see him from the deck. He apparently didn't realize this because he just sat there on a horizontal brace of the rig giving out imaginary instructions to the dive controller. I was standing on the edge of the vessel tending his hose and had been watching his progress as he did his job, but, once I realized he wasn't doing anything I motioned the dive controller over to the edge of the deck and pointed to him. After about a minute of watching him do nothing but pretend to work he ended the dive and fired the dude, told him to catch the next boat hitting shoreside. The look of shock on his face was priceless when the dive controller told him he was being watched from the surface!

Another funny one was a newbie diver that nearly bit his own tongue half off because he was too anxious. One of the diver tenders jobs was to make sure the divers breathing hose was clear and snag free at all times, you actually stood on the edge of the deck holding the hose and tried to gently feel the amount of slack in the hose at all times while the diver was in the water. It needed to be lightly taut at all times to ensure there was no slack or droop in the line that could cause his lifeline to get tangled or damaged in any way. Sounds easy but it's not, the hose asembly is fairly heavy and it takes quite a bit of experience to tell the difference between the divers pull and the pull of sea currents.

When you help dress your diver out with his diving hat and tools you have to feed enough slack over the edge to make sure he can make a clear jump into the water from the deck from as high as 20 ft sometimes in full gear. Once you ensured everything was clear you tapped the diver on the shoulder to give him the sign to jump. This one guy didn't wait for the high sign from his tender, there was no slack in the hose and he jumped overboard. The hose caught an obstruction on deck and he didn't hit the water, the hose jerked him up like a hangmans noose to his harness and the sudden stop made him slam into the hull of the vessel and nearly sever his tongue with his own teeth! They took him away in an emergency chopper, not a good way to make one of your first deep sea dives!

I recall one of my first jobs as a newbie tender, me and one diver were on a small barge working in very shallow water. Just me and him were the entire diving crew, that meant I had to care for his gear, the radio equipment, the air compressor (an old hand cranked diesel that was a bitch to start up) plus whatever tools he needed. I was barely seventeen I think and I was stuck with a lot of responsibility. I had to tend his hose and talk to him on the radio to relay instructions to the rigging crew to assist his job in the water, meanwhile making sure everything on deck keeping him alive was working properly and just generally johnny on the spot if shit went wrong. He had been going in and out the water all day, very shallow work and we fell into a routine getting a lot of work done. Since the diesel air compressor was so noisy we shut it off between every short dive when he came up for a break.

He took this one break and I forgot the compressor was off and I got him back into the water and after a few minutes he says on the radio, "hey my air is gettin' kinda short down here, don't you think you should start that compressor?" HOLY SHIT! I looked over and sure enough the compressor was off and the gauge on the air tank on deck showed nearly empty! I grabbed that crank handle for the diesel and cranked that damn thing for all I was worth, nearly having a stroke at 17 years old! The bastard thought it was funny, he knew the thing was off before he went in the water and just wanted to hear me panicking on the radio thinking I was killing him! The water was shallow enough there was really no danger of injury and he had a bottle of air on his backpack for emergencies. In the end it was funny but that little incident kept me on my toes for later years, what an experience!

Another Blast From the Past

2006-12-30T09:44:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago my mom was going thru some more of my grandmothers personal belongings and came across some old photographic negatives. She decided to take a chance on getting them developed to see how good they would come out and we were amazingly suprised. The format was so old that they had to be taken to a professional photographer for developing at a much higher cost than your usual photo outlets. Well, you can see a couple of the incredible results below.

Unfortunately, since my grandmother has now passed away and my grandfather died over 30 years ago, we may never learn the story of why and where these photos were taken. We do know that the year was 1928 and that it was somewhere in the New Orleans area and they were roughly 20 years old. Don't my grandparents make a great looking couple?

There's still tons of boxes and old belongings that remain to be looked thru, who knows what we'll find!

Hope you guys have a killer new year holiday! Have fun and drink a few for me!

Christmas Cheer

2006-12-23T13:43:00.000-06:00

Here's wishing all you guys a very happy holiday! It's been a great year and I've a lot to be thankful for including all my cool friends and customers here in our virtual world. Be good and maybe Santa won't come gunning for you!

I've been very bad, if I'm lucky he might bring me a nice lump of coal!

'tis the season to get spammed...

2006-12-18T09:24:00.000-06:00

I don't know about you guys but the amount of inbox spam I've been getting lately is just way off the charts! Everything from the lamest sounding home refinance offers, drugs, watches and porn. It's just incredible! No matter how many you block, dozens more arrive every fifteen minutes! I know it has everything to do with the season too. They think people are more in a "spending mood".
I'm more likely to jump into a live volcano or eat razor blades for breakfast than I would be to click on one of these email links, let alone actually purchase something from these annoying fuckheads.

I especially resent the "enlarge your pen!s" just in time for Christmas ads. Apparently Santa gives better gifts to men that are well hung or something. And hell, why not display your Christmas spirit with a huge pen!s?? Hang a stocking on it! Now, I admit, the drug ads are a good idea, who doesn't want to be totally drugged up for Christmas? Count me in!! Nothing like being in a drug induced stupor on such a wonderful day, huh? No drug underdoses for me!!

And, you can be sure I'll be the first one lining up to send money for a "genuine" Rolex watch from a website run by a guy named "Akmed" who's website link looks like total gibberish. Yeah, right.... not in their fucking dreams.

I'm starting to think these people are nothing more than "email terrorists" the way they hold our inboxes hostage, clog up the internet with useless crap and send our stress factor up using extremely lame attempts to get us to part with our hard earned money. It's a good thing some of them are so ridiculous that they're actually quite funny and somewhat entertaining!

Die, spam-tards, Die!!

Be Your Own Soda Jerk

2006-12-15T09:45:00.000-06:00

Has anyone else tried this? One day I thought it might be fun to experiment with different soft drink combinations. Mixing and matching your own favorite flavors at self-serve soda fountains that are so common at fast food places these days. So far my favorite combination is Diet Pepsi with a good shot of Tropicana Lemonade on top. Delicious!
I've tried Coke and Fruit Punch, Root Beer and Mtn Dew and a whole bunch of others. Some were pretty good, some were terrible. But, hey you can always just give it a taste and if you don't like it, pour it out and start over! It's help yourself after all!
Give it a try yourself and post your favorite combos, I want to hear a few that you guys can dream up.

I've still been so busy with blog work that I can barely catch my breath! Here's a few new ones I've done since the last mentions: A new one for Sara at Life is a Journey, a website called Science and Supermodels, Nascar Rants, New Orleans Womens Golf Assoc., Nappily Evah Aftah, Bobology, Are We There Yet?, and The Sinister Minister.

I'm also selling PayPal gift certificates that can be purchased in multiple denominations toward a new template at my Blogs Gone Wild! site just in time for Christmas.

I'm also working on a project with a company to develop 10 blog themes for a scientific blogging community using a publishing platform called Drupal. I'm having to learn the system from scratch, but I like it! Drupal is like Wordpress on steroids, with a heavy duty content management system, multiple users and very customizable themes. I'm also in the middle of doing more personal blog skins.

And, in between all that I've also put up a whole bunch of new free to download themes at my Free Blogger Skins site. I sure hope all this work keeps coming in!

Hey!! I hope you guys have a great weekend!!!!

Marking the Territory

2006-12-08T04:07:00.000-06:00

Over the years I've realized that people have some very strange behaviors and habits. One thing that is very rarely discussed is some of the rituals and social interaction in the mens room. Here's a few of my character observations, the names I totally made up but I think they cover it pretty well.

The Tinkle Belle - This guy is almost dainty in the way he approaches the task. Unzips it very carefully, making double-damn sure nothing gets caught or something. Might look around once or twice in the process, throws a half-embarrased quick smile at anyone else in the room and then rezips with even more care. Definitely looks down while zipping just to make sure! Always washes and dries his hands!

The Hunchback - This guy reminds me of Quasimodo the way he hunches over the urinal. Gets as close as he can and shields the action with his arms and elbows while he goes. Makes damn sure no one can see what's going on down there! Stares straight down in front the entire time. Sometimes I think they're secretly inspecting stolen microfilm or possibly worried about getting a fluorescent light burn on the equipment. Who knows?

The Flash - This guy is all business, walks in very quickly and heads straight for the closest station. Has it already unzipped when he's still walking in up to 5 feet away. Drains it in about 10 seconds flat and is still zipping up as he heads for the door to leave! Doesn't have time to inspect for proper closure and never washes his fucking hands! Duuuude!!! WTF?

The Howie Mandel aka The Monk - The germophobe. You can tell this guy is appalled that he is forced to use a public facility by the look on his face. It doesn't matter if it's at the nasty downtown bus station or the whistle-clean one adjacent to the operating room at the local hospital. Cleanliness is THE issue here. Probably pulls it out with a kleenex to avoid touching himself then washes his hands for fifteen minutes when he's done. Actually carries and uses sterile handi-wipes to finish up. Uses a paper towel to hold the door handle when leaving. You need some serious help dude!!

The Wallflower - This guy probably has some wacky social issues. Looks embarrased the entire time he's in the room and always hangs back waiting till everyone else is gone so he can do it in total privacy. It doesn't matter if there's a couple of empty stations, and usually feigns preoccupation with combing his hair in the mirror while waiting. He's not fooling anyone though. Momma probably told him that using the toilet was naughty!! Or he was voted most likely to become an adult bedwetter. Who knows?

The Urine Retentive - This guy obviously held it for as loooooong as possible, way, way too long in fact and when he arrives the stations are all full. Fun to watch as he shifts his feet, holding his crotch, dancing very impatiently like a child while waiting for a spot to relieve himself. This is probably the asshole that pisses all over the seats in the toilet stalls because he waited too long to show up. He has to go so bad that he can't wait for a urinal and he definitely doesn't have time to lift the fucking seat!

The Urinal Talker - This dude has to run his mouth and chat with anyone that will listen while he's doing his duty. Dude, I don't care what your favorite NFL team did and I don't wanna hear about the new truck you just bought. Or that you "got lucky" at this club the night before. I don't know you and I'm not in the habit of making bathroom buddies. Standing at the next urinal doesn't count as being neighbors! That's just too freaking weird. Just shut up!

The Straight Man - Just walks in quietly and stares dead ahead at the wall studying it carefully for cracks or something, who knows? You barely know he came and went, just as it should be, never leaves a mess and always washes his hands.

The Superman - This guy thinks he can pee over tall buildings in a single bound. Pees with an "I don't give a shit" attitude. Doesn't bother to stand close enough to the facility. Stands with shoulders back, crotch forward and just let's it fly, not caring what he hits. If he was wearing a cape it would be flying in his imaginary breeze behind him. This nasty bastard always dribbles all over the damn floor. Yeah, thanks dude, we love walking in your fucking pee, asssssshole! This is the guy that inspired the expression "Stand Close, It's Shorter Than You Think".

The Forrest Tucker - Could be any of the guys above except for the Flash but he also has some kind of appearance issues. It takes him about 5 minutes to get his shirt properly tucked in, jamming it down all round 3 or 4 times before zipping up and buckling his belt. Inspects himself carefully all around in the mirror several times and might actually redo his shirt tucking ritual again if not totally satisfied with the results. Always hogs the damn mirror, move over dude!

I'm sure the guys aren't alone in this. I'll bet there's female counterparts to some of the characters above. What about it ladies? Any wacky ladies room rituals or characters you wanna share with us?

Have a great weekend!!!!

Perverted Pleasure

2006-12-04T09:46:00.000-06:00

I've got a new addiction. Yes, I admit it freely and I just can't seem to help myself. I blame Lisa for it too, she introduced me to this exciting new pleasure. Now, we have to discuss it just after we've satisfied our desire by watching To Catch a Predator on Dateline: NBC on the Saturday nights when it airs. Have you guys seen this show? I love watching the pedophiles getting their just desserts when they show up for a rendezvous with an underage decoy that they've "found" on the internet.
The excuses they stammer out are hilarious and stupid, claiming they weren't really "going to do anything" or they came to "talk them out of it". The condoms and alcohol they bring along tell a different story! The men that show up are from all walks of life, baptist ministers, prominent doctors, military personnel, truck drivers, corporate big wigs and even jewish rabbis!

Of course my favorite part is the arrests, watching the cops throw down on these scum bags is always so cool! Some even try to run or they attempt to take on half a dozen cops like they have a chance in hell! LOL One thing I noticed that they all seem to have in common is that they don't understand that they broke the law before they even showed up at the sting. Soliciting sex with a minor is a major offense, the sting just makes it easier to take them into custody. Putting their faces on national TV during the sting is icing on the cake!

The sting operation is actually carried out by a group called Perverted Justice in cooperation with NBC and the local police. The stings have been carried out in various places around the country and are always great fun to watch!

One town however wasn't too particularly pleased with having pedophiles "invited" into their town. Some residents of Murphy, Texas were particularly vocal and attempted a recall of their local police chief for allowing the sting to take place there. It seemed to make no difference that some of the people caught were actually local with most of them living within a half hours drive. Apparently they like having pedophiles roaming freely, unchecked. I guess you could say they are "pro sexual predator". How's that for a town reputation! Here's more on the Murphy, Texas controversy.

Here's a quote:

I am begging you to stop the Murphy Police Department from being involved in these Internet Child Predators "Stings". I DO NOT WANT THESE CRIMINALS BROUGHT TO OUR TOWN ON PURPOSE! These arrests statistics are now on file for our town. When anyone researches these statistics, they will find Murphy to be a haven for these types of arrests. The unusually elevated numbers is NOT the reputation that we need. I don't want people to think "Child Predators" when they hear the name Murphy. The police response that "We are getting them off the street and they now should know not to come to Murphy or be arrested", is crazy.

Awwww, not in their town? They're full of shit! WTF were these morons thinking, it IS happening in their town whether they like it or not. They should be proud that their local law enforcement is taking a stand instead of trying to run them out of office. Fucking rednecks! LOL

Lousy Town

2006-11-29T11:06:00.000-06:00

Hope you guys had a great Thanksgiving weekend! I know I did and now it's going to take at least a week to recover from the food overload, LOL. I drove over a 1000 miles visiting friends and relatives while I as away and noticed a lot of horrible names for towns on my trip.

Some of the names were truly bad, bad enough that there would be no way that I would want to live there. But then I started thinking that there had to be some that were even worse around the world, far worse than the ones I saw on my trip and here's a few that I found with just a bit of research.

Dikshit, India
Blue Ball, Pennsylvania
Big Knob, Kentucky
Dykesville, Wisconsin
Cunt, Spain
Bumpass, Virginia
Bastard, Norway
Chinaman's Knob, Australia
Dildo, Newfoundland
Ding Dong, Texas
Fukumama, Japan
Herpes, France
Knob Lick, Kentucky
Little Dix Village, West Indies
Mianus, Connecticut
Wankers Corner, Oregon
Wet Beaver Creek, Australia
Turkey City, Pennsylvania
Long Dong, China

Here's a few I made up that would most probably get rejected as town names:

Moose Balls, Alaska
Nut Scrape, Utah
Hemorhoid, Alabama
Hairy Bush, Texas
Ear Wax, Florida
Butte Munch, Nevada
Fente d'Ane (Ass Crack), Louisiana
Foot Fungus, Brazil
Snot River, Missouri
Sewageville, Ohio

What's the worst ones you guys have come across? =)

Pass the Ammo!!

2006-11-22T18:45:00.000-06:00

Hope you guys have a great holiday weekend! I'll be heading out in the morning to visit relatives and eat lots of turkey and dressing! Then on Friday I'll be driving out of state to visit my sister for a few days. See ya next week!

Have a happy, giant evil mutant turkey hunting day!!

Have fun and be safe!

Yard Sale Hell

2006-11-09T07:05:00.000-06:00

Last weekend we had a big yard sale here that ran thru Saturday and Sunday, what a pain and a huge mess. Although a lot of stuff was sold there was way too much junk left over. In spite of putting signs out all over the area and running ads in the local paper the turnout was very poor and disappointing. The sale was a shitload of work and now there's the problem of packing up and removing the tables loaded down with picked over crap. What fun! Next time I think we'll just have a nice bonfire and pass on the yard sale... As you can see in the photo above the roof of the house still has tarps on it from Katrina, badly tattered now from the weather.
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Went to Wendy's for a burger the other day and ordered just a regular combo with fries and a drink. The fuckers upsized it to a larger drink and fries with out me specifying it or even asking me if that's what I wanted. When she told me the price it sounded a bit higher than I expected. When she handed me the ginormous cup of diet coke that hasn't a fat chance in hell of squeezing into my cup holder I realized they had "upsized" my order. When I told her she had screwed my order and I wanted it corrected, she got pissy with me and snatched the bag away and gave me a smaller fries, smaller drink and refunded the difference. The swap was fine, that didn't bother me, but she can take her rude attitude and shove up her ass!

Is this a new tactic fast food places are using to gouge your for a few more pennies? Anyone else have this happen to them? I never order large fries anyway, we all know that "large fries" just means "larger container", you still end up with medium sized fries!
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Lots of fun stuff in the news lately! John Kerry's horrendous gaffe was a good one, he almost made Bush look good, didn't he? The Bush response that it wouldn't have made sense if he had told the joke correctly made them look even more stupid, if that's possible. We all know he meant that Bush was the dumbass that got us stuck in Iraq, and not that you were dumb by being in the military. Of course, we're all just a bunch of school kids and we couldn't help picking on the dorky guy for a huge but silly mistake.

It seemed like the entire nation pitched in to give Kerry an Atomic Wedgie! Even the troops jumped on that one!

The blog template business at my BGW! site has been going crazy lately, I can't recall being this busy before. I've done 4 new skins since my last post and I'm currently working on 3 more with even more coming up! Here's one that I really enjoyed doing for a cool guy over at Afro Nerd, it's done in a bright, classic comic book style. Jottings From Jersey is another favorite for a nice lady that loves cats. The Mamarazzi is a lady that loves to take lots of photos and finally, I did a totally new look for Chris over at Faded Sunsets. Cool!

Get 'em while they're hot! Hope you guys have a great weekend!

The Incurable Cynic

2006-10-30T11:18:00.000-06:00

Here's a list of things that I've either learned over the years or that just annoy the hell out of me:

Relative Humidity has nothing to do with whether or not it's raining at your cousins house.

New and Improved means they've found a new and improved way to charge more for the same crappy product.

30% More Free! means they've figured out how to make it cheaper.

Miracle Drugs involve 2 separate miracles. One is if it actually works at all. Second is if it doesn't make you more ill than you were without it.

Doctors will always figure out a way to give you the maximum number of return appointments for even the most minor types of illnesses.

No matter how fast you go on the freeway, there's always some asshole that thinks you're going too slow and will ride directly on your rear bumper at 80 mph, mistakenly believing this will cause everyone to magically speed up no matter how heavy the traffic is.

Here's a commercial blooper I would love to see!

And finally... Owwww!

Many Thanks Everyone!

2006-10-21T09:15:00.000-05:00

Your visits and heartfelt condolences are very much appreciated! The funeral for my grandmother was very nice and very well attended. It's sad, but passing is a part of life that we all must endure and we knew in our hearts that she didn't have much time left. We weren't exactly shocked when we got the news from the hospital that day. She lived a long, healthy and very fruitful life and when her time came she went without a whimper or complaint.

My mom was going thru her stuff right after her passing while looking for important papers and such and came upon a beautiful purple dress that she had tagged for her own burial. She looked very lovely and peaceful in that dress, she couldn't have made a better choice. She had also written her own obituary for the newspaper announcement. She knew her time was near and she had even told the hospital staff that she didn't want to be revived with drastic measures.

Beautifully. Gracefully.

______________

Life here is slowly returning to normal as we try to deal with everything that must be done. The house here is still in a total shambles. Absolutely nothing has been done to the house since Katrina flooded it out over 1 year ago. FEMA is still dragging their concrete encased, leaden feet with getting the approvals and engineering up to speed to even get started on the repairs. How fuckin' sad is that??? I'll be doing an in depth post on that soon to explain just how fuckin' pitiful the government can be when trying to "help".
"FEMA = Fix Everything My ASS".

______________

Now for the good shit! I finally got some test results last week about how well my chemotherapy is doing and it's kicking ASS!!!! They tell me that I'm actually cured!!!! Rock on!!!! Unfortunately, I will have to endure 3 more months of chemo to ensure that it has no chance of returning. As of now though, the virus is undetectable in my blood stream!! Damn that's the best news I've gotten since I was told my liver transplant was a success!

I was extremely ill for a few months though with the chemo drugs, so ill in fact they made me stop halfway through because I was almost completely bedridden and so anemic that I would need blood transfusions. I had to take a break for a while which has given me this window of feeling quite healthy again. Too bad I'll be getting sick again for a few more months till I'm all done with the therapy. Bleaaaah! hehe But I'm cured and that's the main thing!! woohooo!!!

______________

In other news I've been very, very busy with blog work!! hell yeah!!! Check out these bad boys that I finished up this past week! Brianne had me make up another skin for her new blog at "The Rantings/Neurotic Writer" , very colorful! Here's one for a very nice lady at "Naked on Rollerskates" , LOL I just love that title!!!! And one I delivered just last night at "Principles of Lust" which is very sexy and features lots of naughty content, hehe Weeee!

Hope you guys are having an ass kickin' weekend!!

Gracefully

2006-10-11T11:01:00.000-05:00

My dear, sweet grandmother passed away yesterday, late afternoon. Although the hospital called and warned us that it looked like the end was very near, we rushed yet were unable to make it to her bedside in time. She was asleep as her heart slowly failed, passing most gracefully, just as she lived her beautiful life.

Year: 1928 at 18 yrs old, my grandfather 21.
This is one of my favorite photos of her.

Her and myself several months ago, at a family dinner.

She lived her life always giving of herself, always sacrificing, always loving. And everyone loved her very much in return. The first time she ever had any type of surgery or was ever hospitalized was just this past month when she fell and broke her hip. She was 93 yrs old.

We already miss her very much.

What Was That Again?

2006-10-05T11:45:00.000-05:00

If I'm going to poke fun at Chavez (see last post), you know I have to give Bush equal time! Damn, I love Photoshop! LOL

Damn, it's nice to be feeling healthy and busy again, woohoo! And since you know how I love to show off, here's what I've been up to lately. I created a nice new template for Linda over at Humbling Moments a very nice lady and a new one for a budding novelist named Anna over at Just Like I Imagined and a very cool 3 column template for Vince over at Rocker Guy Ramblings. I also updated the look and layout of Old Hoss' bl*g. (he hates the word blog) LOL . I reused the same images but I freshened them up a bit and changed the layout to look better and make it a bit easier to read. I also did one for Brianne a while back over at A Hangover You Don't Deserve, it has a very cool and colorful summertime look.

And by now, most of you have probably seen the cool new, fall fashion look I gave Lisa's blog. She still has the original skin, I'll be setting up a theme switcher on it so visitors will have a choice. How cool is that? I'm also working on a couple more as well, hell yeah!

You guys have a kick ass weekend!!

What's Up Doc?

2006-09-30T11:55:00.000-05:00

I've been feeling pretty decent the past few weeks. I had to temporarily stop taking my treatments because my blood levels were "critically low", whatever that means. It sure didn't sound like fun! They were threatening to hospitalize me for blood transfusions! All I know is, I was very, very sick. It seemed like it took about 3 weeks though before the effects started to really wear off and I started feeling "normal" again. Yay! I've even gone back to doing some web work!

Finally, someone has come out and described just how nasty this stuff really is. Steven Tyler of Aerosmith admitted to going thru the same therapy in which he claims "it about killed me". Read it here for those that haven't seen it yet. At the moment, I'm waiting for the results of a blood sample test to see if the therapy was actually working. If it was working then I'll be going back on it again to finish it out. If not, then there's no point in continuing. I'll know in a few days! Keep your fingers crossed!

We got some really bad news yesterday, my 93 yr. old grandma fell and broke her hip. She's now in the hospital, I'll be going to visit her this afternoon. She's been very frail and not doing so well. They have her in traction at the moment, we're still waiting on the doctor's conclusions about what can be done to help her heal up. My mom and myself have a very bad feeling that this may be the beginning of the end for her. She'll probably be laid up for weeks and in her weakened condition it's going to be extremely difficult for her to regain her strength. Hopefully she will snap back as she has done so many times in the past! I really love and admire that lady!

Update! Sunday night. My grandma was operated on today and she is now recovering in ICU. Her vitals are looking good and the operation was relatively minor. They made a small incision and pinned the break and it looks like she'll be fine! Good news! yay!

I was having a little fun with Photoshop this morning and I modified a few images that I thought were entertaining, enjoy! Here's the rest of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez speech before the U.N. General Assembly in which he called Prez. Bush the "devil" and he could still smell the sulphur in the air. Apparently, they didn't do full coverage on the news, why am I not surprised? Here's some of the stuff the media left out!

Have a good weekend everyone!!

Losing My Religion

2006-09-24T12:33:00.000-05:00

Reading Evil Julz post the other day about losing her Catholic school memories reminded me of my childhood days of being raised in a Catholic family. I was lucky that I never actually went to Catholic or parochial schools myself but I was forced to go to Catechism classes on Saturdays. Although neither of my parents were particularly religious, with my mom being more so than my dad, I was sent to those classes so that I would at least be taught the basics of the religion.

For those that don't know, Catechism is basically just Bible study given by nuns in a classroom where they ~~beat into you~~ teach you the basics of God, the writings of the Bible and the fundamentals of the church. The school that I went to I like to call "Our Lady of Corporal Punishment" and boy did they like to dish it out! I was very mischievous and rebellious as a child, always getting into some kind of trouble. Even though I wasn't always the instigator, trouble just seemed to follow me around like a black cloud of evil. Most people probably have this notion that nuns are very sweet and kind people like the one portrayed by Sally Field on the old TV series. But, I can tell you from personal experience that these women are absolutely EVIL!!!
I once got punished for not paying enough attention in class. They would usually whack you across the hand with a ruler and or send you to stand with your nose in the corner at the front of the class.
Amazingly, later in the same class I was punished again for "staring" at the same nun! I was apparently now paying too much attention!! How wrong is that!? Of course, she probably thought I was the "devil spawn" and I was giving her the evil eye, hoping a death ray would magically appear and send her off to meet her maker. But hey, that's beside the point!
Another incident was the first time I ever encountered the word "fuck". I had seen it written on the wall in the boys restroom and had absoulutely no idea what it meant. I innocently raised my hand in class and asked the nun out loud, "Sister Mary, what does the word "fuck" mean?" Well, you would have thought that I had just peed on the pope's hat by the reaction I got, I was arm wrestled out of the classroom, yelled at, paddled, dragged to the office, scolded and sent home without anyone actually explaining to me what I had actually done wrong other than "Never, ever say that again!! It's a "bad" word!! God will punish you!!" LOL

But my favorite incident was caused by two litle girls that sat in the row next to me. You know how when you are sitting down in a chair and the front of your pants bulges up, making a fold across your zipper? There's not actually anything in there but I suppose that it looks like there's something poking up. One of the girls reached across the aisle and poked me there with a ruler and said out loud "I know what's in there!". Of course, they both started giggling very loudly, but what they didn't know was that the nun had seen her do it! Guess who got in trouble? That's right, ...ME!! I got a good ass paddling for that one and I didn't do a thing! Sister Mary acted as though I had instigated it somehow and the 2 girls were just too sweet and innocent to have done such a naughty thing on their own!!

Those were just a few of my worst experiences but there were plenty more! It seemed like I was always in trouble!

You guys have any similar evil nun experiences? I wanna know!

Time For Some Silliness!! Dammit!

2006-09-14T10:50:00.000-05:00

I think it's about time for some silliness around here. I'm sick and tired of all the depressing stuff going on so here's a few things I've come across or dreamed up lately!

Sometimes you just never know what you might find by reading the fine print on product labels. Looks just like a normal can of sweet peas right?

But then you zoom in on the fine print at the bottom and what do you see? Ugggh!! OMFG!!

Always read that label!!

Sometimes a company brings out a new product and they just don't get it quite right. Here's a perfect example of what I'm talking about!

Of course they stayed crunchy in milk (the bones and hooves!) but for some reason people just didn't buy them until they changed the name. It's all in the name folks!!

I've wondered about the eerie similarities between these two guys for some time now and was curious if anyone else noticed that too. I made up a little image for close comparison to help explain my case.

Here's a few examples:

They're both kings of something, one is king of burgers the other is king of schlock!
They both prance around like a couple of "queens"!
They both creep everyone out with their unnerving appearances.
One loves to serve up lots of kids meals and the other one loves to enjoy lots of "kids meals"! (if you catch my drift!)
One gives away toys with his kids meals and the other gives toys to get his "kids meals".
They've both probably used lines like: "Hey kids help me find the "cheeseburger" in my pants"!

I'm sure there's lots' more similarities than that, can you guys think up any good ones? hehe

Hi Everyone!!!

2006-09-03T09:58:00.000-05:00

I'm still sick as a "dog" but I wanted to drop in and tell everyone hello and to have a safe and happy holiday weekend!!

Happy Labor Day!!

The Power of Suggestion by Lisa (guest post)

2006-08-13T15:09:00.000-05:00

I've been feeling extremely crappy the past couple months with the chemo seriously kicking my ass that writing anything at all has just been too much of an effort. About 10 minutes at my PC is all I can handle at a time, I've been so weak. I really appreciate you guys coming by here, many thanks for all of your encouraging comments. Hopefully, I'll be done with it in another month or three!! Major kudos goes out to Lisa for cheering me up with lots of very kind and supportive phone calls and emails. I asked her if she would mind writing up a guest post to help keep my blog alive and she sent something I'm sure you'll enjoy!

Here's Lisa!!

After a really annoying day, (don't ask,) my friend came over and we
decided to go to a favorite bakery and treat ourselves. Their
specialty? Cupcakes. Hers was cappuccino with chocolate frosting, and
mine was lemon with buttercream frosting. Everything got immediately
better within 10 minutes.

I was telling Se7en this story and we got into a lengthy discussion
about cupcakes. What our favorites were, homemade vs store bought,
frosting, etc..

He called the next day.

Se7en: "You and your cupcakes."

Lisa: "Huh?"

Se7en: "I had to go to the store yesterday for some breakfast stuff. I
was looking around and there was a box of freshly baked cupcakes. So of
course I HAD to buy some."

Lisa: Laughing uncontrollably, "I really got to you, huh?"

Se7en: "Yes you did."

Lisa: "So how many have you eaten?"

Se7en: "Just one so far, I do have SOME willpower."

Lisa: Still giggling, "You better watch out, they will be calling
your name in the middle of the night."

Se7en: "Probably so."

Next time I will call Se7en after I've eaten some cake.

*Smirk*

I'm evil that way.

Aw crap. Now I want a cupcake.

Biohazard: Deadly Sausage Bomb

2006-07-23T15:57:00.000-05:00

I was digging around in the fridge this morning for something to whip up for breakfast. Sausage and eggs and toast sounded real good and I remembered that there was a package of Jimmy Dean pork sausage somehwere in there. Seasoned with sage, my favorite! I found it way at the very bottom of the cold cut drawer, buried under a bunch of other stuff. When I reached in for it, I immediately noticed that the plastic package felt very odd, like a balloon! It was all swollen up like the package had been inflated with air.

That's not good! That's a sure sign of botulism and since I'm not particularly fond of food poisoning I decided not to eat it. I gingerly removed it from the fridge and carefully wrapped it up in a large plastic bag. I was afraid it might actually burst because it was so swollen! I set it aside on the counter for a little while, planning on carrying it out to the garbage in a few minutes but then I forgot about it... Later on I noticed it again, laying there and as I went to pick it up I realized that it had grown much larger, nearly twice it's earlier size!

The warmer room temperature had made it grow so huge that I was now very afraid it might explode! I started wondering just how big it would get before it would pop, so I carried it out to the front lawn and set it out in the sun. I went inside and watched TV for a little while and about 2 hours later I went out to check on it again. I was freaked when I saw it because it had grown nearly as large as the house! Holy Crap! Of course I had to get a picture!

Now I had the problem of disposing of this obviously deadly sausage bomb, what to do, what to do??? I can't think of anything, it's way too large for the garbage collection, won't fit in a can and as far as I know there are no government agencies set up to deal with this sort of thing. Air Force maybe? Tell 'em it's a UFO? Hmmm, I doubt they'll go for that.

You guys got any suggestions?

Ok, OK! Here's an Update!

2006-06-23T09:25:00.000-05:00

I'm fine and healthy, thanks for the concerns to everyone that came by during my extended absence. I look at my statcounter occassionally to see who my visitors are. LOL. I've just been very busy lately with other projects and felt like taking some time off from blogging. One project was helping to do a complete rework of the Family Network on Disabilities of Florida website which is coming out really nice. I've also put up a whole bunch of free to download skins over at my Free Blogger Skins site, which has been getting tons of daily traffic. I'm really pleased with it's awesome search engine ranking, it comes up #1 for it's main keywords, like "free blog skins" which is pretty damn cool! It took a lot of work to get it there though, lots of linking!

I finally started my interferon therapy last Friday, I'm extremely happy about that. So far I haven't gotten very sick which is good but I'm going to withold judgement on that for a bit longer. I take my second injection today, I'm not sure how it will accumulate and if it will make me feel any worse. So far the worst symptoms have been lots of muscular aches and pains and I feel constantly on the verge of getting a headache which is kind of weird. I do feel generally weak and lethargic and it takes a lot of effort to get my ass in gear to do anything, but overall the experience hasn't been near as bad I expected. So far. (fingers crossed) LOL

The list of possible side effects associated with this drug is a mile long including hair loss (eeep!! not that!!), severe depression, suicide, heart attack, stroke, severe anemia, high fevers, blindness, vision damage and a whole lot more than I can possibly list here. The injections come in a box of 4 pre-filled syringes which is a months supply that I have to administer myself. That one month's supply costs $2,000!!! Thanks to insurance I only have to pay 20% of that but even then it is still a big chunk of change!! Holy crap, the cost of medicines is just insane these days, isn't it?

My surgery is all healed up and that came out rather well so no problems there! In a couple of weeks I'll be celebrating 2 years since my liver transplant, that will be a nice milestone to see. I took the link down to my blog that has the short story about my liver transplant a while back. I decided that I would no longer allow the transplant to be a defining factor in my life and move on! I started to feel like there were times when I used the fact that I'm a transplant survivor as a sort of a crutch to make excuses for some of my personal shortcomings, but hell, I don't think it will make any difference in the long run.

For the moment though I'm just looking forward to getting this therapy out of the way, which could take up to 7 months or as short as 3 months depending on how well the drug works in my system. There's also a chance it won't do shit and it will all be for nothing, including the nearly 2 year wait to even start taking the medication. I try not to dwell on that possibility though! hehe

I can't promise I'll be around much for the next couple of weeks or so, but you guys are always in my thoughts!! I will be back though!! Have a great weekend everyone!! Hugs!!

The Road to Recovery

2006-05-25T09:09:00.000-05:00

I used to be quite an avid gamer, I loved playing video games on my PC, I did a lot of that for a few years. Both online and single player, everything from Doom in the early days to Quake, Everquest, Anarchy Online, Asherons Call, Halo and more. It's something that I had put away for the past few years though, too many other interests got in the way. I always had to have computers faster than anything you could buy to satisfy my gaming needs, which meant I had to build my own with hand-picked high-performance parts like high end video cards, RAID hard drive arrays, gobs of ultra fast memory, etc.

About a month ago my fastest video card in my fastest computer took a major dump and the PC died on me so I was forced to buy a new one. My first choice was so problematic with spontaneous reboots and random memory errors I had to bring it back after a few days. I went out and bought another card and it seems to be working fine after a week of hammering it with the recently released Quake 4. There's something very satisfying about mowing down hundreds of evil alien monsters that are hell bent on Earth's destruction in a realistic 3D environment. Blood, gore and ultra-violence is the way to go!

I'm not sure why I had the sudden urge to go buy a new video game, maybe it was just to see what this new card could do. The one that it replaced cost over $400, the new one was less than $100 and it's much faster than the old one by far. Yeah, I'm still a kid, just older and not any wiser! It has been a lot of fun though and my surgery is nearly fully healed.

Which is a good thing, maybe the gaming helped keep my mind off the pain, soon I'll be able to lift things again! LOL Tomorrow is the doctor's appointment for the follow up from the surgery. Maybe he'll declare me "healthy" again, that would be nice and I can move on to bigger and better things, I'm tired of feeling like my life is in a constant state of stagnation. I think the thing that bothers me the most though is that I'm having a hard time feeling the "funny", there's not much that I like better than writing stuff to this here blog with something silly, stupid or humorous in some way. I'll be glad when my funny bone gets healed up!

Oh well, time to fire up some Quake 4, the Earth is in danger once again! You guys have a great Memorial Day weekend, buckle up, stay safe, drink one for me!

When Dealing With Medical "Professionals"... DON'T!

2006-05-18T16:50:00.000-05:00

The story I'm about to convey is completely true, and also very scary! I mentioned on my blog recently about getting some minor surgery done and I'm going to relate to you some of the "hilarious" hijinks that ensued. The visit to the surgeon went well, we discussed the operation, he called in the plans to the hospital and we set the date right there on the spot, no problem! I was amazed at how quick and efficient he was and I thought to myself that this whole thing would be a breeze! How wrong I was!

Before I left the hospital complex though he wanted me to stop in at the admitting department and get pre-registered for the operation, including giving all the blood samples they would need pre-op and get all the paperwork out of the way. Should take no more than a few minutes he said, it would save me a trip all the way back, about an hours drive each way from home. I had several hours to burn before picking someone up at the airport that afternoon so I took him up on it.

No sooner do I get the paperwork all done which took about 10 minutes do they inform me that the phlebotomist (the person that draws your blood) is busy at the hospital proper and would be about a half an hour. The half hour ticked off and then it was another half hour, and then another, and then another! All told I was hanging out in the lobby for over 3 hours before the phlebotomist finally shows up all apologetic, explaining why she took so long, blah, blah, blah. By this time I'm fit to be tied.

She draws no less than 8 vials of my precious blood in a matter of a couple of minutes and then she drops the bomb on me, she needs a freaking URINE SAMPLE!! Unfortunately no one warned me about that tiny little detail and I had just been to the mens room no less than 5 minutes before she had finally showed up! After she spent another 5 minutes explaining to me that the world would indeed come to an end without a small sample of my prized urine I became extremely angered because I HAD to be at the airport in a matter of minutes and would not have time to "do the deed". A dreaded 2 hour round trip in heavy traffic to give her a little urine sample was now a part of my future plans in the coming week! ARRRGGGHHH!! I was so pissed by now that I stormed out of the lobby shouting curses at their stupidity and incompetence. I left knowing that I would have to make a long ass trip back, wasting a lot of time and gas just to take care of that stupid little detail.

I had also been informed by my doctors assistant that I would have to get a referral from my Primary Care Physician (PCP) to make sure the insurance paperwork would go thru and it would cost me a lot less out of pocket for the operation. I was new to this HMO and never had a PCP before because I had always been under the direct care of my liver doctors thru a totally different insurance plan. I had never seen the assigned PCP before and now it was too late before the scheduled operation to get in to see him so I called and asked about a courtesy referral because of the odd circumstances.

They said no problem and that they would FAX it over to my surgeons office right away. I thought, cool, that was easy enough! WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!! Now get this part, the PCP's office is in the very same building as my surgeons office, only ONE floor apart, barely spitting distance from each other, how's that for a coincidence? I was soon to find out that the distance may have been more like a billion miles away, because getting that FAX from the PCP's office to the surgeons office was going to turn into a virtual nightmare of repeated phone calls, answering machine messages, call backs, kept on hold for long periods of time with repeated hangups and lots of cursing and swearing and beating my freaking head against the wall.

How motha-fucking difficult can it be to get one measly little FAX to go less than 100 feet away, from one machine to another??? Very, very difficult apparently because it took no less than 5 working days plus a weekend and countless phone calls to both parties to coordinate their efforts to both send and receive that one stupid FAX!!

In the meantime I had to make the trip back out to the hospital to give them a sample of my precious bodily fluids, remember the ones that were going to cause the world to end if it wasn't received NOW? I had to make another trip out to the airport the following week and decided to swing by the hospital which, although out of the way was a lot better if I combined the trip. Smart huh? So I swing by the hospital, check in at the desk, explain my situation about the urine sample. Yes, they remembered me! How could they forget, LOL! They had me wait about a half an hour while they pulled the paperwork and called my name.

This time I had a different phlebotomist and she took me into a little room, looked over the files and said according to what she reads I don't have to give up the urine sample UNTIL THE DAY OF THE ACTUAL OPERATION! She showed me the paper, sure enough in plain English, as clear as can be, it said the sample was to be given on that day only, NOT in advance! The other girl didn't know what she was talking about!! WTF!!! I had now wasted another 2 hours of my time by trying to "save time" pre-registering for a simple one day motha-fucking surgery!! By now I was so pissed I was seeing red and got the hell out of there before I really lost it and did something stupid to get me arrested!

Keep in mind now that all along I have been dealing with medical "professionals". Give me a fucking break, you can get stuff done right the first time when it comes to getting your fucking car repaired, just don't put your life in the hands of so called "educated" folks!!

And this story is no where near over, now that we finally have the above BS all resolved we have the situation following the surgery. About 3 days post-op I'm at home recovering and I'm starting to realize that the quantity of pain killers the surgeon prescribed just ain't gonna get it. This shit hurts! I have a 5 inch horizontal incision that went completely thru a major muscle group in my upper abdomen and it's fucking killing me and the pleasure of the dainty ass percocets has long worn off because I'm now popping the damn things 3 and 4 at a time and I'm getting low on a Friday afternoon. I had to act fast because I knew there was no reaching anybody on the damn weekend!

So I call my doctors office and practically beg them to give me something different or stronger or whatever but they fucking refuse me! WTF??? Why do they do that shit, just let you fucking suffer when they can fucking well stop it. I guess they assume everybody is freaking Rush Limbaugh or someshit and will get hooked on the damn things, whatever! Finally they give in and call in to my drugstore at 5:30pm on a Friday evening a medication that supposedly reduces swelling that will help manage the pain. Not an actual painkiller but by now I was willing to try any damn thing that would help.

So I wait about an hour after they call it in and call the drugstore, WALGREENS in case you're wondering, to see if my miracle drug is ready to be picked up. Guess what? They have no record of my doctor's office calling and they have no prescription! WHAT?? You gotta be kidding me, why would my doc's office lie, surely they called it in, I had double verified the number with them! Nope, no such call!

I frantically tried to get back in touch with my surgeons office and no dice, they were GONE. For the entire weekend. No answering service, no fucking nothing! Damn, I was so pissed! It was gonna be a looooong weekend!

First thing Monday morning I called my surgeons office but couldn't get anyone that knew anything until that afternoon. When they finally called me back they assured me that they had indeed called in the prescription and that the number was correct! The office said they would call it in again, right then and now and I quickly followed it up with a call of my own to the same Walgreens to find out when the script would be ready. Guess what? They still had no record of my doctors office calling!! HOLY FUCKING SHIT!! I was ready to go berzerkers now, how the fuck could they lose my prescription?? They kept denying that they received my prescription call!!

I asked to speak with the pharmacy manager and told her what was up, accused them of BS'ing me, incompetence, and everything else I could think of while remaining polite as possible without cursing them to hell and back for putting me thru this freakish nightmare. Just as I was about to call my surgeons office back to announce that the prescription was "lost" again and have them call a different drugstore, Walgreens calls me back... full of apologies... and excuses... begging my forgiveness because they had fucked up.

Some how, one of the pharmacy assistants ("professionals" mind you) had indeed taken in my precription, on FRIDAY no less and "accidentally" put it in the system under another persons name. Not once, but TWICE, when the prescription was called in again on the following Monday afternoon. The name that it went under didn't even sound remotely like my own last name or even start with the same freaking letter!!!!

3 nights and 2 and a half days I went without my medication that could have helped relieve a lot of pain over that weekend because the so called "professional" help couldn't fucking read???! Suppose it had been a drug that I couldn't live without?? I would have landed my happy ass at the freaking emergency room by Saturday morning with a huge bill and a major inconvenience because of this simple little mistake!

All I can say is why me??? WHY ME!!! If you find yourself dealing with medical "professionals" just kill yourself now, believe me, it can save you a lot of fucking trouble and misery!!

The Post I Hate to Write

2006-05-16T11:13:00.000-05:00

Lisa and I have together decided to end our relationship. We remain very close and dear friends and will continue to talk to each other. I know a lot of you have been rooting for us all along because of the nature by which we met each other, through the internet and our blogs. In the end though, as much as we care for each other, we've found that we have too many small differences to make a permanent relationship possible. I hope you all will respect our privacy on this.

Lisa, you are a very sweet, honest, generous and loving person and will remain very dear to me always. Sweetheart, I hope you know that I will always think of you and I have nothing but great memories of the time we spent together.

Take care baby, hugs and kisses!

Lame Phishing Attempts

2006-05-15T15:15:00.000-05:00

I get quite a few phishing attempts in my email Inbox from assholes trying to steal my login information for various accounts that I may or may not have. Quite a few are from dickheads trying to get my name and password for my Chase Bank account, LOL I don't even have a Chase Bank account! I just delete them as fast as they come in but I also get quite a few from thieves trying to steal my Paypal account info.

They never have my actual account name so you know right off that it's a spoof and a scam no matter how convincing and genuine the information in the email looks. Except for one that came in that really, really pissed me off. They actually had scavenged my exact Paypal account holder name right off one of my webpages and sent the email directly to me in a very well done email, complete with the Paypal logo and well written text. Someone took the time to actually target me directly as opposed to being one of thousands sent in a mass mailing. That was kinda spooky!

As a matter of course I just forward the phishing attempts off to Paypals security team so they can shut the site down by sending it unchanged or edited to spoof@paypal.com which is what I suggest anyone should do if they get one of those phishing attempt emails. Turn the scumbag bastards in!! Paypal always gets back to me right away with a reply verifying that it was a scam and they thank me for helping out.

There was one in particular though that had me laughing my ass off! This attempt was so lame and so poorly written that it was actually quite funny! I saved the text from the email so you guys could have a laugh at this moron too...

PayPal - Notification

Dear PayPal Client!

Having provided the constant support and check of your billing data on file with PayPal we managed to discover a little error in it. You can use you card only for the purpose of identification, the charge at will is impossible. This very type of user's identification lets PayPal! store a safe place to make a purchase, manage the verification of your account data. Setting up a seller account needs valid debit or credit card and verification of account data. In case of automatic payments the charge of credit card usually lasts 5-7 days after getting the invoice. Confirm the necessary information. Mind that your account accepting can be invalid for non-payers and your responsibility may include costs accepting.

To entry the confirmation page you should click here

Be sure, you've made right choice paying attention to this matter. Sorry for any inconveniences but we woul! d like you to understand that it is just a safe way of your account protection. Please understand that this is security measure meant to help protect you and your account user account.
The PayPal Team Copyright 1999-2006 PayPal. All rights reserved.

LOL, isn't that just about the worst thing you've ever read? Anyone that falls for that load of crap deserves to have their account information stolen! What about you guys? Do ya'll get a lot of these things in your email too?

I'm Baaaaack!

2006-05-11T17:03:00.000-05:00

The operation went just fine and I'm home again, safe and sound. I've got an ugly new 5inch long scar just below my ribs and quite a bit of pain to show for it! Owww!! LOL Thankfully he did prescribe some pretty decent painkillers though. I'm walking around and stuff and it looks like he did a pretty good job. I'm just glad it's over with!

Once this is all healed up maybe I'll finally be able to get my chemo therapy over and done soon as well. Yay! It's hard to believe how long my life has been on hold, waiting, waiting, and waiting some more! Eventually, I'll be all fully recovered and be able to put this chapter of my life behind me. I had no idea that it could or would drag out this long!

My 2 year transplant anniversary is coming up in July, too. Cool, huh? Hell yeah! Thanks for all the really nice concerns and comments on my well-being, you guys rock! I'll be back in a day or 2 with a real post when I'm not feeling so loopy from the Percs! hehe

Till then have a good one!

Under the Knife Again

2006-05-09T20:48:00.000-05:00

First thing Wednesday morning I'll be having an operation to repair some defects in the incision left over from my liver transplant. Ughhh, i'm not worried about it, but it will be a pain in the ass to deal with. It shouldn't be too painful and they tell me I'll be walking out of there later the same day or very early the next morning.

Just give me lots and lots of pain medication and I'll be just fine! LOL I'll update you guys when I get back!

Have a great week! =)

A Teeny Tiny Taste of Jazz Fest - UPDATED!

2006-05-03T19:55:00.000-05:00

For those that can't see the Flash videos below, try these links, give them a couple minutes to load:

Rosie Ledet Video

Steve Riley Video

Lisa and I had a great time at Jazz Fest this past weekend and I took a couple of really short video clips of a couple of the acts we saw. They're kinda crappy because I'm shooting video with a snapshot camera but they're not too bad.

This first one is of Rosie Ledet and the Zydeco Playboys.

And this one is of Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys.

Hell, who knew there were so many musical cajun playboys huh? LOL We were also fortunate enough to meet up with another blogger that came in with his family all the way from Montana! His name is Wade of Wade's World, dude that's a long ways to go for a party! hehe Anyway, we had a great time eating and drinking, I turned Lisa on to the awesome goodness of crawfish bread and fried alligator tail and she showed me how easy it is to lose all your money gambling at Harrah's Casino in N.O. LOL Maybe that's not really a fair trade huh? hehe

Hope you guys had a great weekend too!

We Gonna Have Big Fun on the Bayou!

2006-04-24T22:24:00.000-05:00

Lisa will be arriving in New Orleans in a few days and we've got tons of fun stuff planned. This will be her first visit here since we met and I'm looking forward to showing her around as much as possible. She's been to N.O. quite a few times before but now she gets to see MY New Orleans and all the stuff that I consider to be fun. First off we'll be hitting the Jazz Fest which starts this weekend and that's always a blast! There's another, smaller Cajun Festival coming up this weekend as well which we plan on attending for the food and music. Fried alligator tail anyone? Delicious!! Of course we'll be cruising the quarter and probably do an uptown tour of the Garden District and hopefully hit some of my favorite off the beaten path super cool places.

In other news we're gearing up for the next hurricane season which will be open in just a few short weeks. As you can see in the picture below, we'll be more than ready this time around! Hell yeah! Now, if I could just remember where I put that stack of life preservers...

Looks like fun don't it? LOL

Speaking of fun, things are going pretty damn good over at my Blog Flak website, it's popularity is growing by leaps and bounds, you guys should stop by and say hello and check out some of the cool content I have up in my Blogging Help pages, you might learn a thing or two or three, and I have tons more planned. I've got a linked article up about Blogging Like a Rock Star, check it out when you get a chance, it's a great read. I just wish that I had written it hehe.

You guys have a great week, I know I will and I can't wait till Lisa arrives... woohoo!

Breathe Easy...

2006-04-11T09:40:00.000-05:00

I had the weirdest dream the other night about me saving the planet. You can thank me later!

Earth was slowly running out of oxygen in the atmosphere and everyone was having great difficulty breathing because there was so much carbon monoxide from air pollution. The worlds populations were in a frenzy trying to figure out a way to replenish the air before we gradually expired. I came up with an idea to release all the compressed air from all the car and truck tires all over the world which had become a huge storehouse of oxygen that we needed to breathe!

Anyway, I wound up inventing a machine that would easily separate carbon monoxide from the air and could compress it to refill all the tires. The idea took hold and became law all over the world that tires could no longer be filled with breatheable air! I became extremely wealthy selling my new tire pumps and I was hailed as one of the worlds greatest heroes!

Only in my dreams! LOL

I've Got the Red Ass and I'm Dragging Up!

2006-04-01T10:20:00.000-06:00

That was a slang expression for: "I've had it with this fucked up company and I'm walking off the job now!" I know it was used mostly in the oilfields and construction businesses all across southern La. and Texas. I'm not sure about where the expression originally came from or how widespread it was beyond those two states, but it was a very colorful way to express your disgust about working conditions or company policies.

Back in the days when I used to work in the deep sea diving and underwater constuction business I worked for one company in particular that had just about the worst vacation policies I've ever run into. The way it was set up was that after one year of service you got one weeks paid vacation but you HAD to take at Christmas week. The entire company would shut down from the day before Christmas until the day after New Years day and everyone went home, no matter where you were. Even if you were out to sea. If you had less than a year with the company, you got the time off like everyone else but with no pay. After two years with the company you got two weeks paid but you were still forced to take one of them at Christmas no matter what.

Now normally I didn't mind this set up very much because being offshore a lot meant you were going to miss a lot of holidays but you always got the one that mattered the most, and that was Christmas. You probably missed Thanksgiving and birthdays and Easter and whatever else but you still got Christmas off. On one particular job though the company decided to throw that policy right out the fucking window which pissed a lot of people off, giving them the "red ass". And of course they wanted to "drag up", including me.

On this job I was in charge of the entire diving crew and I was responsible for making sure we had enough people to keep the diving going on around the clock. The underwater construction we were doing required a large support vessel with huge cranes, heavy offshore construction equipment and a couple of hundred support personnel on board to assist the diving crews to get the job done. It was a very important job for a major oil company that was trying to get an offshore oil drilling platform up and running to get oil out of the sea floor. This was not possible without the diving crew.

The job was long and arduos and the entire crew had been out for about 3 months with no relief, which was pretty normal for diving crews. Once you went on the job you stayed till the project was completed or three months. We were tired and beat down from working 12 hour days 7 days a week. That's just about all a guy can handle without a freaking break! We had already missed Thangsgiving for craps sake!

Of course we were all looking very much forward to that week off at Christmas and I for one couldn't wait, I mean we were counting down the minutes till it was time to catch the helicopter to shore. At the very last minute though the company decided the job was too important to shut down for the week and sent the department heads notices that the company was only going to shut this one job down for ONE FUCKING DAY! We would leave the vessel during the day of Christmas eve and have to be ready to fly back out to the jobsite offshore on Christmas day in the evening! That would have given us barely more than 24 hours off the job! Did I say I had the "red ass?" I was absolutely furious. And to top it off they left it up to me to tell my crew this extremely shitty news!

That was it for me, I decided I had had enough BS and I plotted my evil revenge. I figured that if I didn't tell my crew that they would have to return the next day and I didn't pass on the info as to when to meet up to head back offshore that it would shut the entire operation down for a couple of days. This would kick the company right in the ass err.. pocket book, because they would have hundreds of other support personnel just sitting out there at sea getting paid to do nothing because there was no diving crew on board to continue the work! This would cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars!

Revenge can be so deliciously sweet! Hell yeah!

Very early the next morning after Christmas day the phone rings. I was sound asleep but I knew who was going to be on the line before I even picked it up. It was the head of the diving division and he started chewing me out big time because none of the diving crew had shown up, I swear the fucker sounded like he was gonna have a stroke right over the phone! I quietly and calmly let him finish screaming at me and then when he was done, I replied...

"I've got the red ass and I'm dragging up!" Then I hung up on the bastard and I never heard from them again!

Have a great weekend everyone!

The Drama Never Ends...

2006-03-25T09:42:00.000-06:00

Things here in New Orleans still hasn't changed very much, we still have a FEMA trailer out in front of the house, just like most of our neighbors, the house itself is still a shambles with all the walls torn out and the roof is still crushed in the rear from the tree falling on it. The Army Corps of Engineers came out months ago and put blue tarps up there to keep the rain from causing further damage to the interior but now most of that has blown away from the high winds we've been experiencing here lately. LOL The big thing is still waiting on government approvals and permits, survey results, applications for grants to either raise the house or level it and rebuild from scratch. In other words tons of red tape resulting from bureaucratic foot dragging. And we're just one of the many thousands in the same boat.

How the hell do they expect people to get their lives back together and rebuild an entire city when you can't even get one fucking house repaired in a timely fashion? Beats the hell out of me!

Most of you know about my liver transplant, and it's now getting close to it's 2 year anniversary, yay me! July 10 will be 2 years which is pretty damn awesome considering I never expected to live long enough to even get the transplant in the first place. But, even that's not all said and done though, I've talked about getting chemotherapy treatment to try to cure the virus that destroyed my liver in the first place, something that I had planned on starting nearly a year ago. They expect the therapy to last 6 to 7 months and because of circumstances out of my control the starting date keeps getting pushed further anmd further back.

One of the biggest obstacles of late has been the aftermath of Katrina. My doctors offices are still closed here in New Orleans from hurricane damage and they are working out of borrowed space 2 days a week up in Baton Rouge. Every trip to see them means a 160 mile round trip for me, what a pain in the ass! They need to be able to monitor me closely to start the chemo which will be impossible from such a long distance so I'm forced to wait till they rebuild their offices in New Orleans. What a mess, and the doctors and staff are in the same boat as everyone else, with heavily damaged or destroyed homes.

I visited my doctor in Baton Rouge last week for a check up and now I've found out that there's a new obstacle to getting the chemo out of the way. I have a small, odd bulge in my upper stomach area just below my ribs along the 14 inch transplant scar line that is apparently a defect from the operation where my stomach muscles have separated and now I've got to have surgery to have that shit fixed. LOL They tell me that has to be repaired sooner than later and it will have to be completely healed up before the chemo can begin! The problem is that the chemotherapy can cause your body to heal very slowly from any type of trauma and anything like surgery will be totally out of the question during that 6 to 7 month period. So my life is still in a freakish holding pattern that seems to go on and on and on.

Yeah, the drama never ends...

But hell, I'm in good spirits overall, I'm staying plenty busy, I bury myself in my web work and I'm happy as hell to be alive! And in spite of all the crap there's shitloads of good things happening that make me laugh and smile everyday. Each day you wake up breathing is a good day! hehe

So, I'm far from whining "woe is me" and I know for a fact that I'll be fine in the end, life wouldn't be any fun if it wasn't hard right? Sometimes you do wonder though, does it have to be this much fun? LOL

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

2006-03-17T09:37:00.000-06:00

Try not to get toooo drunk! LOL I know I haven't been around much lately and I apologize for that but I've been a very busy boy, really I have. Besides spending three kick ass weeks in NYC with the lovely Lisa I've been creating websites and blog skins out the wazoo! Some really cool stuff too!

Check out this killer new template I did for Redneck Mommy, very cool! I've also set up two different sites for downloading free blog skins! One site is here at Charm Skins for Blog Charm which is a really cool new blogging platform from the folks over at Blog Explosion. They pay you to blog! They run very small advertisements in the nav bar at the top and then split 50% of the proceeds with the people on the blogs depending on how popular your site is. It has some really nice features compared to Blogger, including categories for your posts. If you've been thinking about ditching Blogger I would recommend it.

The other site is Free Blogger Skins which also has some really nice skins to download for free! That's a shit load of new skins I've created and coded in the past few weeks!

I've finally finished my new web design site at Fire Site Designs and it got very good reviews from a couple of different webmasters that review stuff like that. I'm pretty happy about that!

And finally I have a brand new site called Blog Flak that is just now opened with it's own forums and it will be featuring reviews on blog platforms and blog sites and graphic software and general blogging news. Also I'm seeking reviews from people on several different topics that are listed there and winning submissions will receive Blog Explosion credits. I'll also be putting up reviews on free software that I find that can make blogging more fun! Cool stuff!

Everyone is welcome to come by and join the forum! See ya there!

And don't forget, I'm still doing my thing over at Blogs Gone Wild! Always looking for more! LOL

Have a great weekend!!!

That Bike Goes That Fast!?!?

2006-03-08T08:35:00.000-06:00

I've always owned some type of motorcycle or another from my teen years on up to just a few years ago. My first bike was a dinky little Yamaha motocross dirtbike I paid for with money from my paper route when I was in jr. high all the way up to several Harleys in my later years. I raced motocross for many years as a teen and moved up to bigger and faster motocrossers as I got older and once I got tired of that I went over to the big super bikes for the street. They were extremely fast and agile street racers that were tons of fun to ride and sometimes just a bit scary. The fastest one I owned though was a Suzuki GS 1100, which was a real screamer but I added on a few goodies like high profile camshafts, bigger carbs, header exhaust and a super duty clutch to make it even faster. It looked just like the bike in the picture below but it had a really cool custom paint job.

My brother, a couple of years younger than me was always trying to one up me with his toys. Kawasaki came out with a new fuel-injected GPZ 1100 street racer that was arguably the fastest bike on the road at the time. This bike was guaranteed to do 160 mph top speed and cover the 1/4 mile in about 10 seconds right off the show room floor! And yes, it was faster than mine! Fucker! It looked just like the bike in the picture below.

Of course it ticked me off that I no longer had one of the fastest bikes around and since it was my little brother that made it even worse! One day we both happened to be visiting my parents and we each had our bikes parked in the driveway. My brother was extremely picky about his stuff and didn't like anybody touching his bike, not even me. I just had to get a test ride on his super fast bike though and after a lot of nagging and aggravating the hell out of him he finally agreed. I had to practically shame him into it though. Grudgingly he handed me the keys.

I went out and fired it up and rode off to find some place safe where I could see just how fast this bad boy was. I have to admit the damn thing was incredibly quick, with so much power that you REALLY had to be hanging on when you rolled the throttle back or you would just go flying off the back of it, losing your grip on the handlebars. It was just as fast as it's reputation, that bike was just amazing. I drove around for about half an hour, rolled it up to about 120 a couple times, stopped a couple times to smoke the rear tire just for fun and I finally brought it back to the house with a huge grin on my face.

My brother was standing out in the driveway with my mom and he was very impatiently waiting for my return. I could tell by the look on his face that he was not happy at all about me being gone for so long. As I was climbing off the bike he complained about how long I had taken to do "just a quick test ride".

I answered "Sorry bro, guess I just lost track of the time, but don't worry I didn't take it much over 100 mph". I already knew he would never let me ride again so what difference did it make. LOL

My mom who was standing right there thought I was kidding though and asked something like "Where can you go around here that you could go over 100 mph?"

I stupidly answered "Mom, this bike is so fast that I could start from right here in front of the house, easily hit 100 mph and still be able to slow down in time to make the turn at the end of this block".

I saw my mom's jaw drop at what I just said, and she yelled out "That bike goes that fast??!!?? OH MY GOD!!!!" shaking her head in absolute dismay. I swear I thought she was gonna faint right there!

My brother just shook his head at me saying "Thanks a LOT bro, Thanks a LOT!!!"

Apparently he had given my mom some lame song and dance that the bikes weren't really very fast. LOL!! And my poor mom probably didn't sleep for days after that worrying about the two of us!!

NYC Update

2006-02-23T13:38:00.000-06:00

I'm having such a great time here that I've decided to stay longer at Lisa's invitation. I think my date of return to N.O. is late in the first week of March. I did a little guest blogging on Lisa's post today for fun, sort of a she said, he said, writers embelishment thingy on one of her experiences in LA.

The weather here has been pretty decent following the blizzard that came through just before I arrived, the 2+ feet of snow is all gone and the temps have been pretty mild overall. Really nice! We went to that gay porn contest thing at a Village gay bar last week which I had intended to write about about, but it was actually pretty lame, not a lot to tell really. I had hoped to get some good writing material from the experience, that part was disappointing. Hell, I've never been in a gay bar before!

We did get to watch Deni play one song though before the contest began and that was really cool. She is quite a performer and she got a lot of cheers from the audience. She sang her song about wanting to get arrested, hehe. In a gay bar! haha There's no way in hell I would want to get arrested in a gay bar!

I've been pretty busy with blog work pouring in like crazy, completed a few new templates and website work and I've even managed to squeeze in a total reworking of my Blogs Gone Wild! website. A totally new look and some new material and updates. Check it out!

I'll be back in a couple of days with more! Meanwhile have a great weekend everyone! woohoo!!

iPod Mania

2006-02-16T08:39:00.000-06:00

I'm really enjoying my stay in NYC and one of the best parts is getting to do a lot of walking around, going out to eat, seeing various sites, and people watching. People watching has always been one of my favorite pastimes. One thing I notice here is that more people than not seem to have a freekin' iPod to listen to. Personally, I can't imagine enjoying music by having to stuff tiny little speakers into my ears but that's just me. Maybe it's something you just have to get used to.

It's amazing how many iPod variations are out there not to mention the bewildering selection of gadgets, gizmos, addons, and plug-ins available for the damn things. Everytime you go in an electronics store the very first display you see is all the crap they have available to sell you to make you part with your hard-earned money for more iPod doo-dads. Even with all of that I think they are missing the boat on a few possible iPod variations that make just as much sense as some of the silly crap already available.

Without too much effort I was able to come up with a few iPod variations of my own that I'm sure could make tons of money... or not! LOL

Above: I think they're totally missing the boat on the highly lucrative pirate market. I call this version the iPatch PiratePod, a very exclusive niche marketing opportunity which is not only a perfect gift for your favorite pirate but also great for all your vision impaired one-eyed friends!!

Above: Here's another variation that's sure to please all you goofy hat wearers out there, with this modified version of the video iPod you could have a slide show running for everyone else to see with photos of your dog, your boyfriend or girlfriend, your favorite make out sessions, your totally boring vacation to the Grand Canyon or anything else that you want to show off. I call this iPod variation the iHat HairPod!

Above: Why not have your iPod do double duty, not just a music player! You could have this cool ass iPacer HeartPod implanted into your chest to make your heart beat to the music, from mellow, soothing mood music to heart pounding heavy metal, this iPod variation would be perfect for friends and family with a heart condition or everyday exercise junkies! Just think, having a heart attack could be very entertaining for both you and your would be rescuers!

Above: For the pooch that has everything! I call this one the iPaw PetPod, now your favorite dog or cat could show off their incredibly good taste by wearing one of these cool devices on their paw. Maybe running slide shows from the Westminster dog show, or just displaying a picture or two of their favorite feline or canine friends. This dog is being very stylish by showing off a picture of Lisa's dog, Ally da Pup!!!

Above: This particular variation, iPax Tampods, would be perfect for the woman that loves to wear skin tight, skimpy clothing and has absolutely no place else to stick their iPod, or just hates to carry tampons around for emergency situations. Moving to the music would take on a whole new meaning!

Now all I need to do is find someone ~~foolish~~ smart enough to fund the manufacturing of these cool new iPods, maybe I could retire!

Which one is your fave?

Sexual Olympics

2006-02-11T15:26:00.000-06:00

It's time for the Olympics again. I enjoy watching quite a few of the events, the opening ceremonies last night were pretty good, I was amazed that they actually had a Formula 1 race car roll out and do donuts center stage though, that was pretty cool. Only the Italians would do something so wacky, I'm not so sure the nearby spectators enjoyed the lingering stench of burning rubber afterwards though! At first I thought the driver was going to try to replicate the olympic rings with tire marks but the coverage cut away to a freeking commercial too soon to tell! Bastards!

I was lucky to happen to be living in Atlanta at the time of the '96 summer Olympics and it was one helluva lot of fun, I didn't go to any of the actual sporting events though, me and several friends hung out in the village area getting drunk with the tourists and the athletes.

Many of the sponsors had huge "hospitality" tents set up for entertainment and hanging out with all the ongoing events displayed on huge widescreen TV monitors. The event tickets were really quite expensive and all the good seats to the best events had been sold out long ago. Besides, getting blitzed in the gigantic Budweiser tent watching the big screens and swilling cheap beer was as close as we really needed to get. The cool part was there were free shuttle buses hauling people in from all over Atlanta so there were no parking issues and no need for designated drivers! Hell yeah!

Sadly though, you know some fucking stupid asshole is going to come along and ruin it for everyone else, remember, that was when Eric Rudolph bombed one of the events and went on the run and hid out in the woods for years and years. One person died, hundreds injured, many seriously. They really clamped down on security after that. It just wasn't the same atmosphere for the remainder of the Olympics thanks to that sorry little prick. They claim he will spend the remainder of his life in prison, I say they should just kill the fucker and be done with it.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot about the Sexual Olympics! It was a weird sci-fi movie made in England in 1968. I've never seen it myself and it really doesn't sound like it would be all that good. Have any of you guys seen it? hehe

Woohoo! I'm headed back to NYC this Monday to spend some time with my ever lovely sweetheart, Lisa of LisaBinDaCity for 8 days. We'll get to spend Valentine's day together and we've got quite a few cool things to do planned for the week. How cool is that!?

We'll also be hanging out with Deni and Last Guy, Deni is going to be a judge at some gay porn contest at a NY bar and we're all going to tag along, LOL That should be wildly interesting! If you guys are good I'll bring back some pictures! hahahaha And on another night we're going to go see Deni play at one of her music gigs. More fun!

Have a great weekend and Happy Valentines!!!

Stupid TV Shows

2006-02-07T08:23:00.000-06:00

I'm constantly amazed at the tripe they present as actual TV shows these days. My own mom is a willing victim and seems to actually enjoy watching a lot of the crap that they try to pass off as "entertainment". Of course I have to tease her about what she watches, in a good natured ribbing sort of way , of course. The ones I find particularly offensive are the types that don't have any actual creative content. They rely on the hapless participants of the programs to provide all of the action presented. I'm sure this saves a shitload of money on writers. Too bad they don't pass the savings on to us the viewers by cutting down on the number and length of commercials shown.

Anyway I thought it would be fun to come up with my own shows that would probably be rejected by the networks, but then again, maybe not! Don't be too surprised if you see a few of these on TV some day!

Panhandling With the Homeless
Wheel of Torture
Polka Dancing With the Stars
Ugandan Idol
Mystery Injection
Are You My Daddy?
Hot, Gay Sex in the City
The Bastard
The Bitch
Survivor: Arkansas Trailer Park
Celebrity Deathmatch
Celebrity Colonoscopy
Celebrity Beard Growing
Survivor: PMS Island
Little Boys Pajama Party at Neverland
Celebrity Cyst Removal
Little Crackhouse in the Projects
ABC Afterschool Special - "Grandpa, I Said No!"
Fat Albert and the Cosby Crips
Smellville
How the West was Hung
Who Wants to Touch My Kitty?
The S Files
Bikini Waxing With the Stars
Law & Order: PVD (parking violations division)
CSI - Birmingham, Alabama

Can you guys think of any to add to the list?

Tornado Magnets

2006-02-03T08:37:00.000-06:00

It's official. Three tornados touched down near here the other night and caused quite a bit of damage in the metro area. The one closest to us was less than 5 miles away! The storm that dropped them was so strong that it woke me up at about 2 AM when the power went off for about 7 hours. The lightning and the wind was some of the most intense I've seen and heard in a long time! I've had the near miss tornado experience several times before when I used to live in Atlanta. New Orleans rarely ever gets tornados, apparently we are lucky in that way, all we get are stupid hurricanes. I think we can now confirm the old myth that trailers are tornado magnets what with the thousands of FEMA trailers now dotting the New Orleans landscape! And of course I couldn't resist doing one more Photoshopped trailer. hehe

I wonder what's going to hit us next! Earthquake??? And hell, we've got the next hurricane season cranking up again in just a few short months, the next one will probably wash all these damn trailers out to sea! LOL

It's sad to see that the feds and Bush have decided to pour many more billions of dollars into wartorn Iraq (damage that we did!) than rebuilding a devastated New Orleans. The magnitude of the damage to everything here is still very overwhelming and will take many years to recover. Wouldn't it be funny if Louisiana seceded from the union and declared war on the US? That way the USA can invade the state and rebuild the hell out of it. Just think of all the money saved, it's already totally destroyed, no money wasted on bombs, planes and tanks! Maybe the feds can be convinced that La. is secretly building weapons of mass destruction and has a clandestine nuclear program. LOL

Maybe they can be convinced that the superdome is really a gigantic nuclear reactor? Hmmm... it sorta looks like one! hehe

Have a great weekend!

Graffiti!

2006-01-31T12:19:00.000-06:00

I just couldn't resist having a little fun with Photoshop and one of the pictures I took yesterday of the trailer. I came up with a few different paint schemes, which is your favorite? LOL Be sure to click the images for a closer look!

Above: #1

Above: #2

Above: #3

Above: #4

I hope the neighbors don't mind... much hehe

A couple people asked about why we are getting and using these trailers. The fact is most of these houses have not been repaired to date, including our house. All the interior walls are still torn out with bare studs and exposed wiring and the roof is still heavily damaged in the rear where the giant oak tree fell on it. It's going to be many, many months before the place will be restored to it's original condition. In our case we will likely have to have the entire house and slab raised as high as 3 feet above ground to meet the new flood plain standards set by FEMA. If we don't bring the house up to the new standards they can refuse to renew the flood insurance.

FEMA and the insurance companies will help pay for the costs of meeting the new standards but there is a lot of red tape involved, surveys must be made, plans drawn, engineering permits approved and last but not least finding an actual contractor to do the work. As you can well imagine all contractors are absolutely overwhelmed with 100's of thousands of homes needing massive amounts of repair work. I'm going to guess it could be as much as a year or more from NOW, five months after the hurricane, before the house is finished. And of course a lot of that time the property will be unlivable, hence the need for the trailers. Fun, fun FUN!! LOL

From the "I love to show off department" I've recently delivered a couple of cool new blog templates. This first one, "Renee's Rants" was a christmas gift from one blogger to another! And this second one "A Hangover You Don't Deserve" is very cool too! I've also got a few new templates up over at my Blogs Gone Wild! site! If you know anyone looking for a new skin for their blog, you know I appreciate all referrals very much!!

There goes the neighborhood!

2006-01-30T11:15:00.000-06:00

We finally got our very own FEMA trailer! How cool is that? Now we can count ourselves in with the likes of this guy: My Trailer Park. A very funny website! All our neighbors got their very own FEMA trailers weeks ago and I have to say we've been very jealous! I took a few pics this morning and here's the view to the left of the house showing 3 trailers! We want one too!!

Here's the view to the right showing 3 more!! Where the hell is ours dammit!?

Finally!! Ours has arrived and they are gonna do the sewer and power hookups later today!
Ain't she a beauty? I know you're all jealous now! I'm already thinking up new decorating ideas for the front yard. Maybe put my car up on blocks and take the wheels off! Maybe I'll paint some cool graffiti on the sides! Too bad christmas isn't coming up, it would look very swank with strings of lights all around it! You guys got any suggestions?

Rattle and Hum

2006-01-22T12:24:00.000-06:00

Lots of cool stuff going on around here lately. Sorry about the lack of updates! I've been one very busy guy since I returned from NYC. I've got shitloads of work to do thanks to a very cool new customer that I'm creating a major mondo porno web site for! LOL The site features all kinds of stuff like xxx dvd's, clothing, and sex toys. When it's completed I'll have to put up the link for you guys to check it out! It's looking very cool! A nice big job for me, the only problem I have with it is, how can I comfortably brag about the job in my future resumes and portfolio? Hmmm...

Baptist church minister: Hello, Mr se7en? Yes, well, so far we really like the new web design you're doing for our church in Holy Hill, Alabama. And well, we really like your work but we just noticed this one site in your portfolio that has some... ahem... questionable content and now we're not so sure you're the right company for the job...

se7en: *talking fast* Yes sir, uhmmm, well I have no idea how that got in there, I think it must be some sort of freaky server error forwarding you to the wrong page, or maybe it was an act of God, maybe it's just his way of telling you that there's really nothing wrong with pornography. You know, the human body being one of his most beautiful creations and all that... know what I mean? No? You're not buying that, huh? *click* Hello? Hello?

See what I mean? Oh well, I would rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints anyway! I'm so going to hell. Ahhhh! Heaven sounds so fucking boring.... I caught a teeny bit of that Barbara Walters special a while back in which she explores the question "What is Heaven?" or something like that. I really don't try to knock or criticize anyones religion or their beliefs unless they feel like their particular religion entitles them to commit violent acts like terrorism in the name of "their" god. Not mentioning any in particular *coughislamistscough*.

Barbara was interviewing this one evangelical jesus freak who's definition of heaven was a place where you could have everything you ever wanted, do everything you ever wanted, never have any aches or pains, and you could eat all the food you wanted whenever you wanted and never get fat! That description sounds totally disgusting to me, let me get this straight now, you can do anything, no matter how bad and never feel any repercussions for doing everything in excess? That sounds like sin to me using the definitions given by most religious doctrine. Eternity is a long motherfukkin' time to exist, and any kind of excessive behavior would get extremely boring in short order no matter how depraved you are. I don't think this guy really thought thru what he was saying! I'm just saying... LOL

Ok now, back to the web design stuff! I could really use you guys help. I'm creating a new website for myself for my web design work and I have to come up with a cool new name. It has to be short, easy to spell and when people see it they will immediately know that it's a web design company and it has to be not already taken as a .com name, meaning it has to be a domain name available for purchase, something like www.whatever.com I will award $20 by either Paypal or a gift card to your favorite major store to someone that comes up with a name that I end up using. Just toss em in the comments. And even if you can't come up with any serious ones, have fun making up silly ones!

Here's a few very funny website name blunders:

http://www.whorepresents.com/ Who represents? Or whore presents?
http://www.expertsexchange.com/ Experts exchange? Or expert sex change?
http://www.penisland.net/ Pen Island? Or penis land?
http://www.therapistfinder.com Therapist finder? Or the rapist finder?
http://www.molestationnursery.com/ Mole station nursery? Or molestation nursery?
http://www.powergenitalia.com/ Power generating in Italy? Or powerful genitals?

Have fun!

UPDATE!! I've chosen to use a name suggested by my lovely gf, Lisa of LisaBinDaCity! The new domain name is www.firesitedesigns.com ! Thanks to everyone that played, but don't let that stop you from making up more silly ones!

Back in the Dumpster

2006-01-14T08:53:00.000-06:00

I'm baaaaack! After an amazingly fun 16 day trip to NYC I have to come back to N.O. where things haven't changed one damn bit. The place is still an uber hell hole of broken promises, badly damaged houses and businesses, piles of rotting garbage and debris everywhere and no end to it in sight. Can ya tell I'm happy to be home? Yeah, I didn't think so! I'm very much wishing I could have stayed in NYC longer but I've too much to do here. Besides, NYC is where Lisa is and I'm missing her very much! We're already talking about the next time we can get together, maybe she will come here on the next go round, but that's undecided as of yet.

I loved being in NY, I've always been a big city kinda guy except for the part where it sucks to own a motorcycle, there's no where to ride the fucker! I do love the being able to walk to every place you need to go though, every convenience you could ever want or need is seemingly just around the corner in a place like NYC. Ya gotta love that!

A few things about my trip: I learned that it's not a good idea to throw your cell phone under a city bus. Well, maybe I didn't actually throw it, it flipped off my pocket, hit the corner of the curb as I was stepping on a bus and it clattered and bounced about 2 feet up under the bus. I had to get down on hands and knees in the street and snatch it from certain doom before the front wheel of the bus crushed it to smithereenies. It was broken anyway as it turned out, the display was now totally blanked. To top it off I think I did some kind of totally illegal yoga move and wrenched my back while trying to retrieve it! Grrrr. I hate when that happens!

I learned that fresh dog poop is a very valuable commodity. Everywhere you walk you see people picking it up off the sidewalks, who knew? I wonder how much an ounce sells for and what do you do with it? Smoke it maybe? Or do people just add it to their collections, like trophies? I also found out that it sucks ass to step in it! Damnit, I really hate when that happens!

I learned that you can get some kick ass pizza by the slice and soft drinks for 2 people and walk away full for $6.50! Dude, that's cheaper than fucking McDonalds! Or you can spend $6 bucks on a fucking draft beer in almost any restaurant, or bar. I've had cheaper beers at NFL footbal games for craps sake where they are known to be way overpriced!

I learned that you can get the most incredible hot pastrami on rye sandwich at the Carnegie Deli with the meat piled no less than 3 inches thick and it's so tender it practically melts in your mouth for $12.95 or you can get a "genuine" Rolex watch on any street corner for $8 bucks! How cool is that?

You can't go to NYC and not visit this place. It's the famous restaurant that has thousands of autographed pictures on it's walls of every freekin' celebrity that ever walked the planet, from Milton Berle to Rob Schneider. I'll have to send them one of me, I wonder if they'll put it up? LOL

Have a great weekend everyone! woohoooo!!

Dinner Party, Street Fun

2006-01-07T12:12:00.000-06:00

I'm still enjoying my stay here in NYC immensely and I'll be here only a few more days. It's gonna suck having to go home, I'm definitely not looking forward to that. I'll have a lot of catching up to do when I return though so I'll be plenty busy!

Lisa and I hosted a little dinner party here at her apartment last night, Deni and Last Guy and one of Lisa's best friends Linny came over to pig out on some of my cajun cuisine. I cooked up a big ass pot of spicy, homestyle red beans and rice with tons of smoke sausage and extra garlic (and a dash of Tabasco sauce!) and crusty french bread, just the way I like it! It was apparently a big hit, everyone went back for seconds, there was barely any left over and at first I thought that I was cooking way too much! To top it off Lisa cooked up a batch of New Orleans style pecan pralines (see story) and served them up with vanilla ice cream, awesome!

Deni had just picked up the final mastered version of her new CD on the way over to Lisa's and after dinner we all sat and listened to it for the very first time! How fucking cool is that! I have to tell ya I was very much impressed, every song on the disc sounds incredible and I would definitely buy this CD, Deni also received some very good news just today about several of her songs but I'll let you guys read about that over at her blog. I'm sure she'll be posting it soon.

The streets here are naturally jammed with heavy trafffic at most hours of every day and most of the traffic seems to be taxi cabs with some of the wildest, craziest driving styles I've seen in a long time. Going anywhere in a vehicle is definitely an adventure. All of the main avenues go north/south and are generally 4 lanes wide and one way. Apparently the white lines dividing the lanes are painted on the roads as mere suggestions, nobody seems to care whether or not they are in lane, with lots of jockeying back and forth, straddling the lines, cutting each other off, horn blowing, shouting strings of curses in a wide variety of foreign accents, rude finger gestures and the vehicles are constantly bobbing and weaving back and forth like a fleet of punch drunk, has been boxers. What crazy fun!

The other day, I happened across one really cool example of street art just around the corner that I liked so much I just had to get a picture.

The artist was obviously trying to capture the appearance of what a bucket of white paint would look like if it had fallen off a truck and splattered all over the street.I was amazed at the detail of the foot prints and the tire tracks of the cars, just like the real thing! Hell yeah!

Happy New Year!

2006-01-03T07:44:00.000-06:00

Hope you guys all had safe and happy Christmas, Hanukkah and new years celebrations. I know I certainly did! Some of you have been wondering just where in the hell have I been. I'm gonna tell ya that you should be jealous, very, very jealous! On Christmas day I hopped on a plane leaving New Orleans, bound for none other than New York city and Lisa of LisaBinDaCity blog fame. I had originally planned on staying for 11 days but we're having so much fun that I've extended my stay for an additional 5 days! How fucking cool is that!?!?

Lisa has been an amazing hostess, making me feel very welcome at all times. She is also very pretty, very sweet and has an amazing warm heart and a ton of fun to be with. We've gotten to know each other very well and make each other laugh constantly. I just can't say enough cool things about Lisa. She also has the coolest little furball dog named Ally da Pup. Lisa is a very private person though so no pictures! Boooo! LOL

Dining out (very often), going to movies and walking around the city as she shows me her favorite places to go has been incredible. Here is a picture of me with my finger up the nose of a statue of Hans Christian Anderson in Central Park. LOL

Last Friday night we went to a an actual Broadway comedy play with none other than Last Girl on Earth (Deni Bonet) and her very cool Last Guy on Earth husband. Meeting them was definitely one of the high points of my stay and the play was a hilarious blast! We laughed our fool heads off, I think both Lisa and Deni were laughing so hard they had tears running down their faces. We left there and went to a pub just down the street for a few drinks after the show and got to know each other a lot better. Deni and Last Guy are a lot of fun, they have tons of fun stories about their travels and adventures together and they made me feel very welcome to hang out with them.

Now you might think that this would be enough fun for one week but it gets even better! Lisa and myself had also been invited to Deni and Last Guys new years eve party! Hell yeah! They sure know how to throw a party, lots of great food, plenty to drink and great company, the rest of the guests were a lot of fun to meet and party with as well!

Deni's sequined dress was totally insane! She really is a free spirit, just like she comes across on her blog. I think we stayed till past 3 AM when we left and hailed a cab back to Lisa's place. It ain't easy to get a cab in New York city on New Years eve let me tell ya. I think we stood outside in the cold and wind not far from Times Square for 45 minutes among huge throngs of other partyers that were all trying to do the exact same thing! The party will be a kick ass memory!

I'm going to be here till next week and I have more stories to tell about my trip but this is all you're gonna get for the moment! LOL

Have a good one!

2005-12-24T09:54:00.000-06:00

Happy, crazee holidays, merry freekin' Christmas, one helluva happy Hanukkah, a kick ass Kwanzaa and whatever else you crazee bunch love to celebrate this time of year!

It's been a great year with all my blogger friends and I'm looking forward to '06 being even better! With that, have a great new year, kiss and hug the one you love (often) and try not to get too damn wasted on new years eve!

Anyway, I'm outta here for a while, I've got a killer vacation trip planned in a far away place and you might not hear from me again till next year!

Hell yeah!

Gigantic Mustang Ass

2005-12-17T07:49:00.000-06:00

I've always been in love with old cars of many different types. One of my all time favorites though were the '65 and '66 Ford Mustangs. The body lines on those just scream out "classic" the moment you lay eyes on one of those machines. I've owned at least 3 of them myself through the years which I personally restored very carefully with custom paint and fresh interiors. In fact one of the reasons I owned a body shop was to have the facilities in which to restore old muscle cars, primarily the ones built in the late '60s by GM, Ford and Chrysler.

One of the things I kept wishing though, was that Ford would come out with an all new Mustang that would faithfully recall the vintage Mustangs that I loved so much. But, for years they kept coming out with junk that had very little in common with that classic body style. Ford just kept missing the mark in spite of the millions of fans all over the world that wanted a return of the original lines but in a modern day muscle car.

Until 2005 that is, finally they brought out an all new model that at first glance did the original cars some justice. I watched the commercials on television and I got excited at what I kept seeing, hoping to finally see one on the road. The commercials however did not show a rear view of the cars before they were released. Every view was from the front and side of the vehicle and I have to admit, damn they sure looked great! Eerily similar to the early body style! I couldn't wait to see one on the road!

Man, this thing just looks great coming at you, even the side profile looks very cool! Then one day you actually see one pass on the road and watch it go by and you finally get a peek at the rear end of the car and HOLY SHIT, this thing has a gigantic ASS! A huge BUTT. It's carrying a loaded diaper! It can't fit thru the garage door with an ass like that! This thing has a seriously bad case of "JUNK IN THE TRUNK!"

Ford, Ford, Ford, you stupid bastards, you screwed it up yet AGAIN! Every time I see one of these things going by I'm reminded of THIS!

Ahhhhh, my eyes, my poor, poor EYES!!! Man this thing is just absolutely BUTT UGLY going away!!! And that's exactly what I want it to do, just go the fuck away! Ford, just give it up, you've had 40 years now to get this right and you've failed miserably at every attempt!!

On my last post I just wanted to point out that I wasn't serious about the Horribly Naked Tuesday thingie. I was just trying to poke fun at the real HNT. Of course if you guys want to post your own Horribly Naked pics, feel free! LOL That picture wasn't actually of me either, although I once had a really bad fall and incredibly my leg did look very much like the one in the photo! The moment I saw that photo the memory of that accident came flooding back. Gahhh!

In other news, I finally finished my webmasters certification course (6 months/150 hours) that I was taking thru Delgado University here in New Orleans with a final score of 97.32 overall! Yeah, I kicked some ASS!! Woohoo! With that out of the way I plan on doing another start up company after the first of the year to go for the commercial webwork in addition to my Blogs Gone Wild! site. The BGW! site will be seeing a lot of changes in the near future as well. I have a lot of plans in mind for 2006 and I can't wait to see what the new year is gonna bring! Hell yeah!

Here's a few links to some of my latest stuff if ya care to check it out! Python News which was a class exercise (I had to come up with all the content) and Clearly Expressed for a customer and a blog called Mallory's Poems and finally a blog I completed just yesterday, Desktop Flamingo, very cool!

Have a great weekend everyone!

HNT on Tuesday v1.0

2005-12-13T08:20:00.000-06:00

Never one to jump on a bandwagon I thought it would be fun to start an alternative to the ever popular Half Naked Thursday. I think I'll call mine Horribly Naked Tuesday! To start it off, I thought it would be cool to show off some pics of injuries resulting from a nasty motorcycle spill. Those are always fun!

Now that I've broken the ice (and the skin) feel free to join in and show off your horribly naked pics! Have fun!!

The Krewe of Dunces

2005-12-10T11:36:00.000-06:00

There is talk of having an abbreviated Mardi Gras season here come February next year. The biggest obstacle seems to be money, the city doesn't have the cash to pay for extra police, fire and emergency services needed to put on the sprawling event that takes over the entire city. In the meantime, most of the residents don't even have a fucking house to live in and the ones that do have a roof and four walls, it is most likely in a barely livable condition considering virtually every home was severely flooded and in need of major repairs. Thousands of people are actually living in tents!! There are several major obstacles to getting any home repaired here, the National Flood Insurance Program backed by the Feds is OUT OF MONEY, my parents home received considerable damage that is covered by the NFIP and now over 3 months later they still have not received any money! They call and call but they keep being told to "be patient". Even if they did have the money then there is the major problem of getting someone to actually do the repairs, all the area contractors have so much backlog that it will take them years to catch up with 100's of thousands of homes needing major repair work.

Now we come to the really juicy, fun part. Just over a week ago the local newspaper put up a story describing what actually happens at the semi-annual levee inspections. It turns out that the 30 odd board members are actually getting together for a large social event including a very expensive meal with dishes like crab cake with champagne dill sauce topped off by a dessert of white chocolate mousse with a raspberry coulis. And that there was much more time spent on the communications concerning and planning the actual dinner which they retire to after a long and oh so fucking difficult day of thoroughly inspecting all 125 miles of the city's extensive levee system. They claimed that they were able to do a "proper inspection" of the entire levee system in less than... get this now... 5 MOTHERFUCKING HOURS. And the brainless wonders still had time to make it for the expensive luncheon at 1pm! Yeah. Riiiight.

When questioned about the events leading up to and surrounding the so called "thorough inspection" the levee boards top administrator (apparently in charge of planning expensive luncheons) defended himself and the board by stating "On a daily basis, our people are out in the field cutting the grass and most of their supervisors have been here 25 or 30 years, so they know what a good levee looks like and what one with problems looks like. If there's a problem, it's looked into further." In other words the guys cutting the grass are also levee engineers is what he has the gall to say. Have you ever heard anything so fucking lame?

Then to really knock these assholes off their already ridiculous position, within a week we get this headline in the local paper "Evidence points to man-made disaster" "Human mistakes led to N.O. levee breaches" Investigations have shown that the levees failed BEFORE Katrina even came ashore, toppled and breached by storm surges ahead of the storm that had not yet had the chance to even reach a Category 3 much less a Cat 5!! They know what a good levee looks like??? Apparently a good one is one that hasn't toppled over yet from storm surges below the design strength, and a bad one is one where the water is pouring through so fast that the water level reaches rooftops in just a matter of minutes!! It doesn't take a fucking rocket scientist or a levee engineer to see the difference now does it?

Need I say more????

Personally, I don't care if there is a Mardi Gras celebration this coming year but if they do, I would like to see a parade put on by the members of the levee board of New Orleans and call themselves the Krewe of Dunces. I think it would be a great parade if the actual members were on the floats in various displays of torture on the rack, bondage in old fashioned public stocks and chains, public whippings, self-flagellation, maybe even a few of them being crucified in the ancient Roman fashion. In this parade I think the throws should be the other way around, with the parade watchers throwing stones at the levee board members on the floats rather than them tossing beads, doubloons and trinkets into the watching crowd. Wouldn't that be fun! Damn, I think I would pay good money for that!! In fact hand me a whip and a few stones, it's time to party!!

Granny's Got Your Condoms

2005-12-05T15:33:00.000-06:00

A few years back I had a notion to go get myself checked over for STD's (sexually transmitted diseases). I didn't have any reason to believe that I had caught anything, I just wanted to know for sure for both my own peace of mind and my new girlfriend at the time. I wasn't exactly sure where the best place to go was, so I called the county health clinic and they said they would do the full spectrum of tests for free. Can't beat that price!

Next day I went down there and waited a couple of hours until they finally called my name. I was led into a small exam room where they drew about 6 small vials of blood. After that I was sent to another room where I was given an actual visual exam by an older asian lady and she took a small q-tip swab and stuck it into the end of my johnson for a culture sample! Damn that hurt like a bitch and burned for a little while. No fun there! LOL

Part of the service also involved counseling about safe sex practices. After the other procedures were done I was sent to another room where there was this very little old lady that looked to be about 70ish with blue thinning hair and old fashioned granny glasses. In other words she could easily have been my very own grandmother. She told me to sit down at the desk across from her and she started asking me very personal questions about my sexual practices, stuff like did I always use condoms, had I ever had homosexual sex and whether or not I had ever done any intravenous drug use and etc. and so on while she marked my answers down on a questionaire form that she had to complete. She was very straightforward with her questions and I have to say it was very embarrasing, I was really wishing I could get the hell out of there as fast as possible!

When she was finished with that stuff she finally asked me how many condoms did I want to take with me. I mumbled something about I didn't think I needed any right now but she was very insistent that I take some because as she went on to explain that they were free of charge and I could have as many as I wanted. Here's the part where it got really embarrassing, she steps into a little store room right in the back of the office and comes out with this gigantic clear cellophane plastic container that looked like it had about 1,000 condoms in it! I looked at her and laughed and said something like OMG I dont think I'll be needing that many!!!!

She replied that they weren't all for me, she just had to open the package which she did and handed me a pile of about 30 or 40. Then she picked up a couple and said she was giving me 2 different kinds and went on to explain the differences between the two. One type was pre-lubricated and the other wasn't but that it was extra thin for extra sensitivity she went on to explain. I don't have to tell you that by now I was so totally embarrased about what she was telling me about them that I just wanted to hide under the freaking desk! She made me feel like my own grandma was explaining the ins and outs of different condoms to me! Finally she shoved the whole batch of them into a small brown paper bag and sent me on my way. Holy shit, I thought that she was never going to end, I can't recall ever being that uncomfortable before in my entire life!

Oh yeah, all my tests were negative! LOL

Outhouse Banditos

2005-12-02T08:39:00.000-06:00

I spent most of one summer during my high school years visiting a buddy named Keith in Arkansas in the hills near Little Rock. We stayed on his grandparents farm and helped work the fields for a $1.00 an hour plus room and board. We also helped out part-time at his fathers new Suzuki motorcycle shop, meaning we got to ride lots of cool motorcycles and we also did a lot of motocross racing every chance we got. We even got to help build a motocross track that his father's shop sponsored with races every other weekend. We also had an incredible amount of fun cruising around, getting drunk, taking double dates to the drive-in and other assorted mayhem.

The area was extremely rural and many farmhouses still didn't have full indoor plumbing, meaning they had an outhouse somewhere in the backyard. Keith had a couple of friends that often hung out with us and one day one of them got the bright idea to "steal" someones outhouse that belonged to someone they didn't like.

We were drunk and of course anything like that is going to sound like a good idea to a bunch of high school kids. So the next night we loaded up in Keith's van and went out to this person's house late in the evening and snuck around back to where the outhouse was. Now, for those that don't know exactly how an outhouse works, basically all it is is a small shed with a shelf with a big hole in it that you sit over and directly below the seat area there is a hole or small pit dug in the ground to hold the waste. Very simple really and usually the shed itself is not permanently attached to the ground to make it easier to move it to different locations around the backyard when the pit gets full. Once it's full the pit can be covered with dirt and the waste is allowed to decompose back into the soil.

When we "stole" an outhouse we really didn't take it far, all we did was pick it up and move it back about 5 or 6 feet, exposing the pit which is now directly in front of the door. The idea was that anyone coming out to use it in the dark would step into the pit! I have to admit that we thought this was absolutely the best prank ever, we really laughed our asses off hoping someone would fall for it. Of course we had so much fun with this that we had to do it again and again and we actually made the local town's newspaper.
Outhouse Bandits Strike Again!
was on the front page with a warning to bring a lantern with you if you went out at night. I think we did it about 5 time overall.

What was the best prank you ever pulled?

Gap Toothed Wonders

2005-11-28T08:52:00.000-06:00

Sometimes I wonder why certain celebrities don't bother with getting their teeth fixed. With all the money and free time that they have you would think a trip to the dentist would be in order to get their ugly teeth squared away. Are these people that afraid of dentists? I like watching David letterman once in a while and everytime the camera goes in for a close up on his late show I do a double take thinking he has a huge hunk of spinach caught between his front teeth.

There's really no excuse for going around looking like that Dave, they make clear plastic braces these days and you can easily take them out and you could wear them during the show's off season. Get them choppers fixed dude!

Another one with an apparent dental phobia is Eddie Murphy. Damn Eddie, you can drive a small truck thru that huge gap in your teeth. Sure it would take some mighty powerful braces to pull them suckers in line but it would be well worth it in the long run. Go to a freekin' dentist man, run now!

This last one is the one that bugs me the most I think. I've never thought that Madonna was all that attractive to start with, and she can use all the help she can get in my opinion. Maybe she thinks the gap toothed look is her trademark, since she is rather non-descript in her appearance, maybe she's afraid that no one would recognize her anymore if she got those front teeth back in line.

I don't think that's a good enough excuse though, I think she needs to haul her ass down to the nearest dentist and get some nice big braces slapped on her chiclets. I'm sure it would be a whole lot easier eating corn on the cob too! What do you guys think?

When the going gets tough...

2005-11-25T11:50:00.000-06:00

The tough go shopping! Yep, today will probably be the biggest shopping day of the entire year! I hope you got up early to catch all the crazy bargains to be found. If not, you could have called Target and scheduled a wake up call from Kermit the Frog so you don't miss out on the mad rush to buy everything in sight. A number of stores are reportedly giving away free gift cards in various amounts to people that arrived early. There are also reports of people getting free laptops at some Wal-Mart stores. These companies are just going nuts to lure people in to spend their last dimes.Those are nice incentives.

There have also been a number of incidents reported where shoppers have actually called the police to report people cutting in lines! How crazy is that? People purposely knocking packages out of each others arms and fist fights over prized bargains can only mean one thing! Make sure you are well armed when you go out there. I suggest a collapsible club hidden in your purse along with a couple cans of pepper spray for the really stubborn ones that just refuse to give it up! For the ultimate shopper stopper though you just can't beat a Tazer! A few thousand volts is guaranteed to have them flopping on the floor like a fish, making it a lot easier for you to cut the line or force them to drop all the goodies! Hell yeah!

What, me go shopping? Hah, are you crazy? I'm staying home and shopping online, them people scare the hell out of me!

2005-11-23T17:44:00.000-06:00

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Dash Sheetrock

2005-11-17T11:27:00.000-06:00

That's my new nickname. Remember that hapless Hollywood movie star character named Dash Riprock from the old Beverly Hillbillies show? I used to love that show, even today it still has it's hilarious moments. I always have to laugh whenever I hear that name too, Dash Riprock, a very goofy name . Except, I don't feel like a movie star! All last week I've been tearing the lower half of all the damaged walls out of the house, mostly sheetrock and paneling in some of the rooms. First you have to pry all the moldings and trim away and pull all of those nails. The paneling goes from floor to ceiling though.

About half of it is done now, and what a dirty, nasty, dusty job it is. The stuff was very moldy (which was killed by spraying a bleach and water mixture on it) and the part that was wet crumbles pretty easily but further up near the center of the wall it's pretty hard to pull out. After you get that stuff down then you have to pull out every individual nail that was holding it to the studs in the wall. And then after that you have to haul it all out to the curb in front of the house. A major pain in the ass!

Click images for larger.

Above: Living Room

Above: Front Hallway

Above: Downstairs Bedroom

Above: View from the kitchen, normally you can't see the bathroom toilet from the kitchen area but you can now! LOL

The way things are going I'll estimate that it will take as much as a year to get the house back in order. We've had surveyers come out to check on the how much the house has sunken into the ground as a result of the huge tree that was leaning on the back wall and the ground being flooded and saturated. The house has sunk quite a bit to the rear, you can actually see it very easily and when you walk thru the main hallway from front to rear it is immediately noticeable that you are going uphill!

The entire slab will have to be raised as much as 3 feet to put it above the new flood plane that they have set for our area and that will have to be completed before all of the interior walls and insulation and kitchen cabinets are replaced. This is going to be a major reconstruction of the entire lower floor of the house. Things are gonna be crazy around here for a long time, what a life changing event Katrina has become. I know I'll be glad when it's all over.

Gimme Back My Skinny

2005-11-14T10:21:00.000-06:00

Yeah, I'm on a diet. I want my skinny back dammit! Well, actually that's not exactly true because I've never been what you would call "slim", maybe trim is a better term to describe my body size when I'm on an upswing. My weight has always been a wild rollercoaster ride, I go thru periods of several years where I work out and exercise regularly and I carefully watch my calorie intake. Then I get sick of that shit and let it all hang out, literally, for a couple years till I get sick of being a fat pig and I decide to take it off again. And so it goes, up and down, like a giant pendulum swing all through my adult life.

Right now I'm in a low spot though and I've been dieting and exercising again for the past couple weeks and I'm definitely not satisfied with the crappy results. I think I need to lose about 15 - 20 lbs of ugly fat (chopping my head off is not an option, smartass!) and it just ain't happening in spite of nearly starving myself! Gahh!! Basically, I've just been eating less (much less) and laying off the sweets (chocolate mostly) and a medium workout 3 - 4 times a week including weight training through which I've lost only a few pounds and no inches. Yes, I know that muscle weighs much more than fat and my muscles are definitely showing the difference but my waistline isn't shrinking! Fuck that!

Then I started thinking about all the crazy diets that I've used over the years to drop my weight back down to an acceptable level and I'm wondering if any of them would be suitable for me to use now. Here's a few of them, what do you guys think:

The All Veggie Diet, that's basically eating lots of green salads with a light honey mustard dressing, lots of straight canned vegetables like corn, peas, green beans and lots of beer. I've lost a lot of weight using this one in the past, I once lost 30 lbs in a single month! I kinda like this one actually, may have to skip the beer part though.
The Pop Tart and Cheetos Diet, this one is a lot of fun, a couple of Pop Tarts for breakfast and munch out on Cheetos all day long chased down with lots of beer. I can't remember if I actually lost any weight on it though, maybe I was too drunk to care or notice. I may have to scratch that one because my budget doesn't include beer, hmmm.
Oreos and Beer, this one is also a lot of fun, me and a buddy that I worked with years ago would occasionally grab a 12 pack of Buds and a big bag of Oreos right after a long hard day at the shop. You would think it would be a terrible taste combination but it was very good! Especially the beers. I don't recall actually losing weight on this one either though, ok we can scratch this one then.
The Tacos and Bud 12 pack diet, this diet consists of exactly that, a 12 pack of Tacos from Taco Bell and a 12 pack of Buds. No weight loss, but you get pretty damn drunk! I guess some of my diets aren't really all that good. I may have to rethink this whole diet plan idea.

I did a little web searching for diets and I came across an article where this guy in New Zealand is asking people to donate their fat from liposuction to help him win a race. He claims he can have the fat refined into some type of fuel that will power a boat called the Earthrace which cost $2.6 million to construct and has a top speed of 50 knots! A typical liposuction operation can yield as much as 3kg of fat. Once refined that amount could produce three litres of refined biofuel, enough to drive his Earthrace boat 2km. Now if we could just find a way to power cars with that stuff and somebody could come up with a cheap home liposuction kit. We could all eat like pigs and power our cars and trucks with clean fuel and with less guilt and look damn good doing it too! Hell yeah!

Fridge Bombers

2005-11-11T16:13:00.000-06:00

One particularly offensive thing that has been going on here since Katrina is the use of discarded refrigerators as WMD's That's short for Weapons of Mass Distinktion. Most people, after returning to their previously flooded homes have not bothered to empty the horribly rotten and extremely smelly food from the fridge, stuff that was sealed inside of a hot, closed box for weeks on end. You can't imagine the stench, trust me on that. They just wrap some duct tape around the damn things and roll them out to the curb to be picked up by special crews that come around every 2 or 3 weeks. They are then taken to a special dump where the EPA is recycling the Freon refrigerant out of them for reuse, Freon is listed as a pollutant that can damage the ozone layer. It's become an overwhelming task, the number of fridges expected to be dumped number in the 100's of thousands!

Apparently, quite a few people don't want their stink bomb sitting out in front of their own home so they've taken to sneaking out at night and dumping them in front of other people's homes, and businesses, especially if there is already a fridge out front. If you put your fridge out front you may end up with 2 or 3 or more, like it's an open invitation to dump! And not just there either, they've also been showing up dumped at dead end streets and worst of all the local parks!

I was reading about one incident where a dumper was spotted late at night rolling his fridge down the sidewalk and left it in front of another family's home and the person that spotted him ratted him out to the home owner. They got together and brought the man's fridge back the following night and then the whole thing snowballed with more neighbors getting in on dumping their fridge at the original offenders house. Eventually the police was called to stop the fridge wars escalation, I don't think anyone was charged but it was a lot of fun to read about!

Some people have nerve don't they? What would you do if you saw someone drive off after dumping a fridge in front of your house? hehe

Dog Town News

2005-11-09T13:03:00.000-06:00

New Orleans Unprepared

While surveying the city for damage to the levee system, the Army Corps of Engineers have discovered that New Orleans is totally unprepared for the event of glaciers encroaching on the entire metropolitan city area. Teams of engineers were immediately dispatched by Thad Allen, head of FEMA, to investigate this new and dangerous threat to the Big Easy. "We will get to the bottom of this." he claimed in one interview. He also promised that FEMA will give New Orleans all the aid necessary to ensure that glaciers will never become a permanent fixture in southern Louisiana. As an emergency measure he approved the immediate distribution of 750,000 ice picks, and 1.5 million snow parkas to local residents. When asked about camp stoves, kerosene and tents he said they are currently "looking into it".

Mayor Ray Nagin, when asked to comment, replied "This situation is nothing new, we've known about the possiblity of glaciers overunning our city for many years and have had local engineers working on the problem since I first took office." To prove it he showed an artists rendering of a system he calls "GEDS" which is short for Glacier Encroachment Defense System.

Above: artists rendering

Nagin explained that the system, expected to cost between 8 and 10 billion dollars, can be fully funded from taxes collected from the local gambling casinos and the lottery system. "This system uses the suns energy collected into a series of giant parabolic mirrors and reflects it at the front end of approaching glaciers, melting the ice. Not only will the energy source be free but it will also provide plenty of fresh drinking water for the entire city. We will also expect to have an over abundance of fresh water that we will be able to sell to neighboring states for a small, but tidy profit" he claimed.

Post Katrina Tour

2005-11-07T15:24:00.000-06:00

I've been curious about how well the French Quarter has been doing since Katrina and I finally decided it was time to go see for myself. I headed out with my camera about 10am this morning and decided to stroll around for a few hours, take some pics, and maybe have a bite to eat. Click all the images for a larger version!

Above: I had heard the Cafe Du Monde was reopened and were serving 24 hrs a day again. No way could I go down to the quarter without stopping in for a snack!

Above: Ahhh, cafe au lait and beignets! Damn this shit is good! Don't inhale when you try to get a steaming hot bite of one of those powdered sugar coated confections! It goes right into your nose and lungs and you can often see the unprepared patrons gagging and choking when they try to take a bite! hahaha

Above: This area in front of Jackson Square is usually crammed with artists hawking all kinds of works, prints, paintings and crafts. Totally deserted today. I wonder how it is on a weekend? Hmmm.

Above: I just had to get a picture of this interesting sign, you would think it might be a bar or music venue but it was actually just another crappy souvenir shop.

Above: I wanted to eat lunch here but they were closed in spite of the sign saying they were open. Central Grocery is supposedly the inventors of the original muffelata sandwich, man those are so good!

Above: This statue of Joan of Arc just cracked me up, the plaque on the base says it was a "gift" from France! This fucking thing was so goddamned gaudy looking I thought it was some kind of tribute to a dead gay frenchman or someshit. No doubt they either thought it was too ugly to display in their own country or they regifted it from Germany to us! And, I was surprised it had such a teeny, tiny little cock for a stallion!

Above: This photo is for Cootera, her favorite N.O. watering hole when she comes to town. The Chart Room was open! Yay! Of course, I just had to stop in for a little refreshment! The place was still in it's horribly dilapidated condition that gives it all it's cool and relaxing atmosphere, the cheap drinks are a big plus too! The only real damage I noticed was all the cloth awnings outside were missing.

Above: This photo is for Laurie, this is her favorite hotspot and karaoke bar when she comes to N.O. I'm sorry, but the Cats Meow hasn't reopened and there was no indication on the outside as to when it might. It didn't really look damaged except for the neon sign missing.

Above: This photo is for Jeanette who is so fond of talking about passing gas, I just happened to notice the book in a shop window and snapped a shot of it!

Above: This shot shows some of the worst damage that I saw down there during my little walking tour, not too bad! I know there was shitloads of cleanup being done since Katrina and it showed. The streets were reasonably clean and garbage free for the most part.

Above: The No Longer Super Dome, it actually looked pretty good, they've been working feverishly to repair the roof and it looked all finished from what I could see. I understand the interior is in pretty sorry shape though and won't be ready to reopen till next year some time. The last time I was inside this place was back in the freekin' late 70's! I went there to see the Stones and some totally unknown band at the time called Van Halen. That concert was the first time the dome had ever sold out in spite of the NFL having played there for like 5 seasons previous! Yeah, the Saints suck ass, always have always will! LOL

I also made a short video clip while I was there today, it's not all that great and my camera is made for stills, not video and I certainly ain't no Cecil B. De Speilberg or anything but it's kinda cool if ya wanna check it out!

Or you can download it here.

Have fun!!

Keep on Blogging in the Free World...

2005-11-05T08:47:00.000-06:00

Things change, sometimes for the good. Sometimes, not. I hope that moving this old blog will be a good one. I never did like the old URL, "spotsy" what the fuck was that about, you might ask. When I first set it up I tried quite a few different names that I liked (like 20) and they were all taken, so, I got pissed and I started typing in silly shit just to see what would work. Spotsy popped into my head for some strange reason (must have been sunspots) and I dropped it in and it worked! Out of sheer frustration I kept it, promising myself to change it somewhere along the way and I never did, till now!

Now I'm thinking about a name change as well, anyone have any good suggestions? I have a few possibilities in mind:

Meat Puppet Master
Dead Dogs Tell No Lies
Blogger King
This Old Blog
Seven in Dog Years
Dain Bramage
Coffee, Tea or Blog
Smells Like Ass
Sordid Tales by Seven
Seven's Silly Shit
Stupendous, the Blog
Been There, Done That, Got the T-Shirt, Didn't Stay for the Hat
Green Eggs and Ham (this one may be taken already)
As the Blog Turns

Those are just a few that passed thru my head, I'm sure you guys can come up with even better ones than that! Or just vote for your favorite. Hell, I might even award a prize to someone that comes up with something really cool!

Magz

2005-11-02T07:53:00.000-06:00

I'm sure you all realize that the last post was total BS, just a freeky, scary little story I concocted for Halloween day. I need to tell you though that Magz is seriously in a world of hurt right now, she was involved in a nasty horsewreck the other day and needed some serious medical attention. She will be OK though, I talked to her on the phone last night, some rest and healing time will have her good as new, eventually. Go over and offer up some sympathy for her if you would, she sure could use it! She has a post up explaining more about what happened with a picture to boot! Go ahead over there, I'll wait right here.

Now, on to the true story! Meeting Magz was quite an experience for me, she's sweet and wild and a bit crazy and kind and generous to a fault, will give you the shirt off her back, which she literally did when she realized I had hardly any clothes with me from my New Orleans evacuation (I especially like the black Las Vegas Harley Davidson T-shirt). She's also a liar, see, she doesn't watch much television, she has one but, she only watches video tapes or dvds on it. She lives too far away from all the TV stations to be able to pick up anything worth a shit over the air and cable is unavailable to her. She knew I was extremely worried about the ongoing disaster unfolding in New Orleans so she rented a local motel room for us to stay in the first 4 days/nights I was there so I could watch all the news channels on their satellite hookup. The story she gave me though was that she knew the people there so well that she only had to pay for one day (about $40) and they would let us stay for several days.

I learned the truth however when I checked out and they handed me the receipt for the lodging and they had charged her credit card the full $40 for each day! I was pissed that she had tricked me, but, bless her heart she knew I didn't have the money for it and she was just being very sympathetic to my situation! Or, maybe it was that she just wanted the use of the motel pool which she spent quite a bit of time playing in! hehe Probably a combination of both, either way I will be eternally grateful for it.

I ended up staying there about a week and a half before heading back towards Fort Worth. I got to know her two dogs really well, Blanche and Holly Davidson, two very sweet and loving Rottweilers. We also had a lot of fun in the meantime, visiting Tombstone (which I already wrote about) was a kick in the ass. Tombstone is only about 25 miles from her home. It's a tourist trap yes, but it has a cool atmosphere about it, it wasn't very crowded either and the shops have some really unique stuff. The old west saloons were a lot of fun too. I really loved the way the local population all dressed the part of being residents of an old western town. I was also treated to some of the best mexican food ever at one of the local restaurants, yeah we ate way too much!

Overall I had a really great time visiting Magz and checking out Arizona and desert life in spite of being worried about what was going on with my family and the house in New Orleans. I did get to share a large portion of my music collection with her, left her some copies of my favorite software and showed her how to use it and I taught her a bunch of shit about her computer, which she probably has forgotten by now! LOL If you ever get invited to visit Maggiez Farm you really should go!

Yeah, I was getting pretty tired of the creepy Halloween template, I was having a lot of trouble waiting for Halloween to pass before I changed the look of my blog! But this just looks too damn plain!! I need some ideas on a new look! Anyone have any suggestions? hehe

I've recently completed a few new templates for other people though, if you wanna check them out: View From the Fairway, Fugetaboutit and Thoughts That Keep Me Awake are all very cool and great bloggers too! Give em a read and tell em I sent ya! Hell yeah!

Hell's Gate

2005-10-30T21:00:00.000-06:00

Continued from 2 posts down...

When I arrived at Magz place it was mid afternoon and hot and sunny, a pretty nice day actually. I pulled up and climbed out of my car to open the gate and then the moment I touched it the skies darkened ominously, dark heavy clouds rolled in and I heard a loud rumble... the ground vibrated and shook beneath my feet... then suddenly flashes of lightning from out of nowhere... startling me out of my wits. The sound of the thunder booming just in front of me was earsplitting and I was so afraid that I nearly ran back to my car. Was this some sort of warning I wondered as I regained my composure. I slowly pushed the gate open wide and the rusted hinges made an eerie creaking noise, this was just too much I thought. I figured that if I knew what was good for me I should just turn back now! This was just too weird! I decided after a few moments that I had nowhere else to go and decided to go on in.

I pulled my car up to one side in the inner driveway and got out and closed the gate behind me before I walked up toward the house. There were 3 horses in a small corral that I had to pass by on the way, they all looked up in my direction with nervous glances to see who I was, the way they acted was a bit strange but stranger still was the two very large black dogs that came running at me, seemingly from nowhere. I stood still for a moment, motionless, afraid to move, not knowing if they would attack or not until I realized their tails were wagging. They were glad to see me! That was a relief, it's good to have Rottweilers on your side! I always seem to have good juju with most dogs, they like me and I like them.

I walked around the horse pen toward the house and I noticed a few other animals in the yard, two pretty good sized turkeys and a few chickens and a rooster. They all eyed me warily, especially the rooster and the turkeys. Maybe they were afraid I was gonna eat them! Just then I realized that the skies had cleared and the lightning and thunder had stopped, how extremely odd I thought as I walked up to the door and I yelled out "knock, knock". I could see the windows were open and I had assumed that anyone inside would be able to hear me, then a voice answered "come on in!".

I stepped into the darkened room and I saw Magz sitting at her PC with a big smile on her face. I had completely forgotten about how foreboding everything looked when I had first arrived as we greeted each other with a hug. Then... darkness.

I woke up, my eyes straining to adjust to the darkness, I looked around as best as I could only to find myself tied down to a large, rough wooden rack of some kind, surrounded by a hundred burning candles in a small, very dark room. My arms and legs were bound with thick heavy ropes, I could barely move at all. Slowly I was able to make out that the walls were covered with cryptic symbols of all sorts and splattered with what appeared to be blood! I was afraid! I looked down at myself and noticed that my shirt was wide open and there was a circle and more symbols painted on my flesh. Then I heard a rustling sound near my head, I strained my neck to look around and saw a figure in a black cloak and hood, holding a gleaming, jeweled dagger! It was Magz, and she began chanting something in a low strange voice, moving closer to me and waving the dagger over my chest making circles and patterns with it and then I yelled at her, demanding to know what was going on! "You've been a naughty boy Sev, I must fix that, it's time for you to pay!" she said with a laugh. "Stop it! What are you doing? Stop this right now!" I screamed at her. She ignored my screams as she raised her arm high, gripping the dagger tightly and then, and then...

Happy Halloween!!

No Title

2005-10-26T12:32:00.000-05:00

There's been way too much stuff going on around here that I want to post, I'll have to continue the journey story later. One of my uncles died early last week from a heart attack. He was about 80ish I think. His health had been rather poor before he had to evacuate his home, he went to stay in an assisted living home in Shreveport. That's where he passed away. There was a small memorial service and a funeral in which I was one of the pallbearers. I didn't know him all that well in the later years, our families were much closer when I was a child however and he will be missed, one really great guy. In a way I suppose you could say he was an indirect victim of the hurricane.

Then, I also had an aunt die late last week, her health had been poor for some time as well. I knew her much better, a very dear lady. She was also about 80 years old. Her funeral was yesterday, there was no burial however, she will be cremated. To top off a really ugly week, my doctors finally got their hands on my blood test results from when I was in Dallas and immediately scheduled me for a liver biopsy.

I had to drive all the way up to Baton Rouge at 4 AM Monday morning to have that done in their same day surgery unit. They kept me for most of the day before I could drive home. Damn, they stuck a looooong ass needle in my abdomen to get a tissue sample, It didn't really hurt because of the local anesthetic but it sure looks horrible when you can watch them do it!! Gahh! I won't know the results of that testing for a few days though. They want to see how much damage my new liver has sustained since the transplant. My fingers are crossed! I guess this is a prelude to the chemotherapy they are planning for me.

I thought I would throw in a few pics of some of the shit that's going on around here. Below is a pic of the house a couple months ago.

Below is a picture from a few days ago.

This one is a look at the pile of debris in front of our neighbors house. They have apparently stripped most of the damaged materials from the inside walls and threw it all oput front. This is a job that remains to be done at our house, we are still waiting on a reply for how much the flood insurance will pay for the damages 3 weeks after the adjuster has come out and did the survey.

Things are starting to return to a somewhat more normal state. They finally came out and removed all the debris from the trees yesterday and this morning which is soon to be replaced by all the debris from inside the house LOL

A lot more stores and businesses have been opening as well but the traffic has been horrendous and ridiculous. Man I am so ready for all this shit to be over with, we gotta get this city fixed up for next hurricane season! hahaha

Las Cruces and Beyond

2005-10-23T10:06:00.000-05:00

I had always kept most of my CD collection in my car for convenience. I have a 10 disc changer hidden under the back of the passenger seat, an in-dash controller/receiver, with power amps and a huge speaker box with 12" woofers in the trunk. I like my music LOUD when I'm cruising, heavy metal, head banging, neck snapping rock is what I love to listen to, especially on the open road with the cruise control locked on to the max speed limit. It makes me feel alive and alert, country music is ok as long as it ain't the tearjerker, somebody stole my wife and my truck and my dog and peed in my beer bullshit, that stuff puts me in a down mood, I can't understand why so many people like it and I probably never will. Unfortunately, I had listened to most of my collection making my way to Fort Worth the previous day and besides I was now hungry for news about Katrina hitting New Orleans so I turned on the radio by the time I hit Abilene.

People, there is something inherently wrong when you scan all the frequencies on both FM and AM looking for music and news and the only goddamn thing available on the radio is in either Spanish or country music for hundreds of miles. I mean it was just totally depressing, I did pick up bits and pieces of news info although the only word I could understand from the broadcast was "Katrina" with the rest being spoken in Spanish. WTF? I wasn't that close to Mexico that I was picking up stations from across the border, these stations had to be inside of Texas itself! If you can only find 7 stations on the dial and 6 are in a foreign language inside your own damn country, well that's just a bit tough to comprehend. That's just not right!

I had passed thru the eastern side of Texas late at night, but what I could see of it was quite nice, rolling hills, nicely wooded areas, clean highways, a pleasant ride by all accounts. The scenery that I was looking at passing thru west Texas was abysmal, apparently the only thing that grows there are oil derricks and gnarly looking shrubbery. Man that is some of the most depressing looking countryside I've ever seen in my life. Mainly because there is NOTHING to fucking look at and it never changes, the next 100 miles looks exactly like the last 100 miles you've passed thru. After about 4 or 5 hours of that shit you start hoping to see a car crash, or vultures hovering over a dead cow carcass or something, any fuckin' thing at all besides mile after mile of desolate land, shrubs and creaky, rusted oil derricks.

By the time I reached Midland I was starting to get pretty damn tired from not enough sleep the night before and I realized I wasn't going to be able to make it all in one day. I called Magz on my cell and we decided that it might be a good idea for me to stop in Las Cruces, Nm. for the night. She said it would be a much better place to stay than El Paso, which is what I had suggested although I had never been there before. She looked up some motel phone numbers for me on the 'net and I called ahead and made reservations at a Super 8 just off of I-10. We also decided that she would head out from her place and meet me there later that night.

Thankfully the scenery started to change by the time I got past Pecos, there were some mountains looming off in the distance and man what a welcome change that was. Going thru the rocky pass just beyond where I-20 meets I-10 was pretty cool although there was tons of road construction going on, I got stuck behind a convoy of slow moving 18 wheelers where the road was reduced to one lane in both directions, man I thought that was never gonna end!

This was a welcome site, a nice big pile of rocks! And many more to follow! Not a bad photo, with my camera hanging out the window at 70 mph.

I finally hit El Paso, Tx. and it was just about rush hour but not too bad overall, the most striking feature about the place was an imposing looking mountain on the northside that was pretty cool except for when you got close enough, the thing you noticed the most about it was that it was bristling with TV and cell phone towers and antennas, man that stuff just looked like crap sticking out all over. The coolest looking thing in the area was unmercifully marred and defaced. Too bad.

The sun was setting when I finally pulled into Las Cruces and I easily found the motel where I had made my reservation. Magz showed up within an hour and we greeted one another heartily, I finally got to meet her. Short blonde hair, a black dress and dark glasses, she looked pretty cool! We chatted for a bit in the parking lot trying to decide what we were going to do, I was sorta undecided about the motel, the Motel 6 next door looked nicer for about the same price but I already had a reservation. I checked in, the place didn't look too bad from the outside but the inside was pretty crappy, even for a cheap motel. Sadly the decor could only be described as "early mental institution" with drabby yellowed paint and curtains and a beater old TV that had a malfunctioning remote control. I didn't care much though, just so long as I was able to get the major news channels on the satelite.

For the life of me I can't remember if we went out to dinner that evening but we did hit a bar across the highway for a short while. A shitkicker dive, kinda rowdy and loud with a lone guitarist playing and singing requests from the crowd. He was pretty good actually but I was wanting to watch more news of New Orleans on the TV so we didn't stay very long. We went back to the motel and talked quite a lot actually before turning in for the night. Magz is bright and funny, wild and just a wee bit crazy with a wacked sense of humor. For those that are curious, yes, we did spend the night together, and we got along very well. If you want more details than that, well too bad! hahaha!

The next morning Magz decided to leave very early and head back to Arizona to care for her horses where I would meet her later in the day. I wanted to hang about in Las Cruces for a few hours, catch up on more news about Katrina on the tube and eat some breakfast before I checked out of the roach motel. I found this great little mexican place that served up a killer breakfast of bacon and eggs, damn I was hungry! Finally, by midday I left and headed for Benson, Arizona, the small town that Magz lives near. I had almost 200 miles left to go and the trip was pretty cool, especially crossing over this one mountain range in particular, the rock outcroppings were awesome! There were HUGE boulders strewn all about, lining I-10 on either side as the highway wended it's way thru the high windy pass. Very picturesque, although I didn't stop to take pictures until my return trip from Magz place a week and a half later.

I found the exit off of I-10 and made my way north on a dirt scrabble sideroad looking for the gate to Maggiez Farm. I actually passed it up because it's set back from the road just a short distance. I pulled up at the gate and here is a picture of what visitors see when they arrive. I told you she has a crazy sense of humor.

To be continued...

Sunday before the storm...

2005-10-19T09:29:00.000-05:00

The morning before Katrina hit I was still unsure whether evacuation was necessary until I turned on the news. We were hopeful that it would take a turn in either direction away from the city and spare us, but, it looked a bit too close for comfort and the damn thing was still listed as a category 4. Very dangerous! We had stayed in the city for several hurricanes throughout my life without any major repercussions but this one looked especially bad. So, I packed a few belongings in a carry on bag and a small suitcase, just a couple pair of pants, a few shirts, an extra pair of shoes and my entire stock of medications. I was very thankful I took all my meds as it turned out. I was thinking we might be away for only a couple days at the most, certainly not the more than 3 weeks that passed before we could return.

The traffic was backed up for miles in every direction headed out, gridlocked on some roads, but, the state police had enacted a plan that allowed all the roads and interstates to become one way only, with all lanes going outbound. The plan helped a lot but still it wasn't enough. It took me nearly 10 hours to travel a distance that would have normally taken less than 2 hours. I had pulled out of my driveway expecting to go to my brothers home in Hammond, La. but a call to my cell phone from my mom informed me that he and his family had decided to evacuate too, at the last minute, and I now had no place to go except for Fort Worth, Tx. where my sister lives. After a couple of quick calls to my sister, I confirmed that I could stay there and that I would try to make it there that same day, I really didn't have the money to start spending on motel rooms all over hell and back. Unfortunately, Fort Worth was a long drive and the traffic was crawling and people were driving like satan on wheels trying their damndest it seemed to cause accidents. The highways were just incredibly jammed with dumbasses, apparently never having driven a car before that very day!

Then I thought about my friend Magz, in Arizona who had been making plans to come visit me in New Orleans the coming weekend. I knew that wasn't going to be a good idea and she would have to postpone, after all, a major hurricane was bearing down on N. O. and no telling how bad it was going to be. I decided to call her from my car and we talked about the situation and we decided that I should come visit her for a few days instead. Now I had a plan, I would spend one night at my sisters home in Fort Worth and haul ass out to Arizona the next morning. It was an ambitious idea but I decided to go no matter what. I was still in bumper to bumper traffic in Mississippi and heading northwest on some backroads now trying to make my way to Fort Worth.

Finally I crossed the Mississippi River at Natchez and found myself creeping along inch by inch in some tiny town when I realized my steering was feeling awfully heavy and my car was leaning. I jumped out and looked in the middle of the road and godamnit, I was getting a flat tire!! Sumbitch! Just what I needed, stuck in a small town on a late Sunday afternoon with a low tire and I knew the chances of finding an open place to get it fixed were slim and none. Hell, everyone knows that the only places open in small town Louisiana on a Sunday are liquor stores and convenience stores (that also sell hard liquor), and I couldn't recall ever seeing any that both sold liquor and fixed flats. I knew I was sunk and I would probably have to stop and change it. That idea sucked because I had so much shit in the way in my trunk, no way did I want to unload all of that to get to my spare and jack.

Amazingly, I saw an Auto Zone just about a block away and I figured I would get some Fix a Flat and pump it up and hopefully it would hold till I hit my sisters house. I put 2 cans in and discovered that it was the valve stem leaking, cut by the stupid hubcap that had loosened and rotated on the wheel, slicing the stem. Shit! What lousy luck, I began cursing the assholes that had worked on my car last for not putting the hubcap on tight enough. Suddenly, the idea of an open liquor store was sounding pretty damn good! Then I remembered I had a small electric airpump in the trunk and between using that and the Fix a Flat stuff I was able to get it filled enough to continue, hoping I could make it to Monroe, La. where I knew my chances of getting it repaired were much higher.

I pulled back out into the crawling line of traffic and found a small backroad going in the general direction I wanted to go, finally hauling ass at a pretty good speed and spewing Fix a Flat juice out of my tire all the way to Monroe. I had to stop for gas and inspect the tire and I asked a couple people where I might get the tire repaired and they directed to me to a shop up the road that repaired heavy trucks. Luckily there was an old guy there that was just locking up the place to go home for the day and thankfully he decided to have mercy on me and my situation and he took the wheel off and replaced the valve stem, only charging me 8 bucks! I think I gave him a $5 dollar tip, thanked him profusely and hit the road again. Now I was finally on I-20, headed west towards Fort Worth/Dallas and things were looking up. But I still had a long ways to go. I finally pulled up at my sisters house at about 2 am, Monday morning, whipped out and bleary eyed from the long day, I had been on the road by myself since before 9 am the previous day!

I slept like the proverbial log and got up very early the next morning, washed up, said my hellos and goodbyes, thanked my sister for putting me up on the sofa sleeper and headed out on the road again. Arizona was a long, long ways off and I had high hopes of making it the same day, hoping to avoid paying for a room along the way. I did catch some news just before I left though and it was just about the same time that Katrina was actually passing over N.O. It didn't look too good! I was glad I had left and now I was looking for some fun on this trip, trying not to worry too much about the welfare of my family and my personal belongings back home.

To be continued...

A Farewell

2005-10-14T15:08:00.000-05:00

It's not a particularly happy day here for me. I have to say goodbye to an old friend. I planted this tree when I was just a kid, it was barely 6 ft tall, a mere sapling, barely more than an inch thick. The tree cutters came out today to take it off of the house and I'm really going to miss it.

I missed watching it grow for many years when I moved away but I've gotten so used to enjoying it's wide reaching branches, always full of life and the many hours of comfortable shade that it has brought to the yard for the past several seasons since my return to this city. It dominated the scenery behind the house, the branches just outside the upstairs bedroom windows were a comfort to me on many ocassions. I also enjoyed many hours of sitting out back, watching the squirrels and birds playing in it's all encompassing reach. Watching the guys carve it up and haul it away is a lot more disturbing than I had expected. How do you say goodbye to a tree?

Elated

2005-10-08T17:47:00.000-05:00

Finally!! My internet connection is back and just as fast as ever... weeee!!! After nearly 6 weeks of hit and miss, varying between extremely slow and non-existent I have to say I was seriously jonesing over here! LOL Ahh hell, at least I didn't whine about it over the local radio waves!! With that comes the cable TV of course but I hardly ever watch television these days. I can make up better crap in my head and watch that instead of the tripe that passes for television entertainment lately. Yeah, you know what I'm talking about, reality shows, with not a shred of reality involved in the making. A piss poor excuse for actual programming, what more ccould the networks ask for? They don't have to shell out a load of dough to a bevy of writers, the hapless contestants are the ones doing the entertaining and they still show shitloads of commercials, raking in the money, hand over fist.

Lately it seems like they run 5 minutes of commercials for every 7 minutes of actual program time. WTF is that about?? Totally ridiculous in my opinion, but hey you get what you pay for right? It's free and you don't have to watch it, which is exactly what I choose to do!!! There is one show in particular that captured my imagination last year when it started airing though, it's called "LOST".

The story as it unfolded was rather fascinating, the idea of so many people trapped on an island in the aftermath of a horrendous plane crash was captivating. A good story line, well acted, very nice location shooting in Hawaii and a wide variety of people from all walks of life struggling to survive. I started to get seriously pissed off with it though about half-way through that first season when I realized that they were just going to continue opening up new new story lines all through the show's airing without solving or explaining a single muthafukkin' mystery. Not ONE!! Another freekin' soap opera!! Well they "lost" me with that crap!! I stopped watching and I hope many others did too.

Dammit, I need to see things being resolved in a reasonable amount of time and to not feel like they've hooked me on dime bags of crack every time I tune in. I have always rejected shows that made me feel like I "must" tune in each and every week just so that I can stay caught up with the latest cliffhangar ending that doesn't get solved in the following episode at least!

Well damn, that's not what I had in mind to write about at all! I had planned on telling you guys a little about my adventurous journey to Arizona, running from Katrina, and meeting Maggie and Becka and tCj on the way there and back. Next time!!

I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to several wonderful people for sending me sizeable cash money donations thru Paypal, they are in no particular order: Rachael of Always Rachael, Old Hoss of Old Horsetail Snake, Vickie of Always Victoria and Lisa of LisaBinDaCity. It was most unexpected and very much appreciated, thank you, thank you, thank you! If you guys ever need anything, well, you know where to find me!! Hell yeah!

Change of Pace

2005-10-05T09:03:00.000-05:00

I'm getting awful sick of the doom and gloom I've been putting up here lately, how about some humor? Hurricane humor that is.

I was sitting in a lawn chair out in the driveway yesterday enjoying the pleasant weather when one of our neighbors stops by. She mentioned that it would be nice if we had one more hurricane and then the property would become ocean front. Then I would have a nice view of the waves from the driveway. Wouldn't that be nice!

Overheard on the radio, a local county/parish official exclaiming about the very high number of hurricanes on record this year, asking "What's next? Hurricane freaking Zorro?"

Directly across the street in our neighborhood someone painted on a fence... Help Us God 911

I thought that was hilarious for so many reasons. I guess it was a prayer of sorts and since it was an emergency they added in the 911. I wonder if he ever showed up? LOL

And then there's the dumbasses that just don't get it and never will. One local radio station was fielding questions from callers all over that had serious concerns about a myriad of problems and the station was being extremely helpful in trying to get answers. Is the water safe to drink, what areas were they doing power repairs, Red Cross information, etc. were the types of questions people were asking. One dumbass calls in and goes off on a serious rant about all his neighbors having freaking cable TV but his was still off, he couldn't believe that they hadn't restored his precious fucking cable TV after a month of being off the air. This guy was outraged! Waaa, waaaa waaaaa!!! It didn't bother him one bit that he was using up precious airtime with such a stupid and frivilous question when so many people don't even have a house to live in or even a fucking TV. If I had been the DJ on that station I would have clicked that bastard right off, instead they let him rant on and on. I hope his neighbors overheard him!!

Nuked

2005-10-02T08:32:00.000-05:00

Everywhere you go, everywhere you look, you can see the evidence of Katrina's passing. It seems like not a single structure was left untouched. Homes with entire walls and roofs missing, businesses with all their signs blown away. Trees down, or branches broken, laying across power lines, across roads, telephone poles broken, the ones that weren't destroyed are leaning precariously, ready to let gravity take over. Wires and cables strewn haphazardly in tangled messes, mangled debris in the trees. Almost every single home you pass by in our neighborhood has a huge pile of belongings out by the curb, wet carpet, broken dishes, destroyed sofas, refigerators and all sorts of other appliances. If the water didn't get it the wind did.

My mothers 100 year old family heirloom buffet with solid marble top, probably unsalvageable. Once belonged to my great grandmother.

The wall unit in the living room where my mom had all the old family photos and memorabilia stored and displayed, a lot of that stuff is now gone forever.

Some of the furniture that we hauled out into the backyard.

Almost everyone you see on the roads seems to be in some sort of a trance, they drive around listlessly, gazing off into the distance, wandering around like they have no place to go and nothing to do. It's the craziest thing I've ever seen, it's like mass sleepwalking, maybe a form of shell shock? Everything is changed, finding gas can be a chore, getting medicine at the very few drugstores that are open means waiting in line for long periods of time. Going shopping at the few places that are open involves standing in line just to get inside the door, with long lines already in place long before the opening hour. Once inside the shelves are mostly empty, and you can't buy much that needs refrigeration anyway. Your refrigerator is out by the curb.

Even the cell phone networks are totally screwed, you may have to try 10 times to get a call out and I have yet to be able to reach my voice mail since before the storm. All the radio stations are down that weren't part of the emergency broadcasting network and are off the air, the ones that are on, are broacasting local news only, the few local TV stations on the air are all broadcasting from studios in cities that were out of reach of Katrina. If you have cable you are very lucky, if you had satellite TV, good luck if the dish didn't get blown off your house or the receiver destroyed in the flood waters. The big thing right now is waiting, waiting, waiting for the insurance adjusters to finally make it to you, out of the million others that are doing the same thing, just to find out if you will receive enough money to recover a small shred of your formal life or any part of your sanity. The sheer amount of destruction is beyond imagination, mind boggling and overwhelming. What's even more insane is that we were some of the "lucky" ones, the gulf coast areas of Mississippi and Alabama and also many areas of New Orleans on the east bank of the river were hit even worse than us. I shudder to imagine what they are going thru right now!

This city is going to be fucked up for a long time to come and it will never be the same. Welcome to Third World America.

One thing that I wanted to mention was that I created this creepy, spooky looking template for the Halloween season, several weeks before the hurricane hit, including the line "City of Dread". Weird how that came true huh?

On a positive note, I had just completed a new template for a very dear friend right before the storm for Allie over at Cocktails with Allie and I didn't get to show it off!! Check it out!! Annnnnd, I just finished one yesterday for a new friend named Laurie over at Stranded in Suburbia. Very cool!! Check her out, I think she has spotted some yuppie terrorists in her very own neighborhood!! She also has another very cool blog over at LaurieParkinson.com

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!!!

The water is gone...

2005-09-28T08:40:00.000-05:00

but I'm still treading water. I've been in touch with the temporary clinic my doctors have set up in Baton Rouge but so far they haven't given me any instructions on where to go or what to do about my blood work. They claim that I will be able to choose from several different locations, including ones in Hammond where I am at the moment and one in the N.O. area where I may just go back to stay for a while. I hate being in limbo, not knowing what drastic changes tomorrow might bring, but it does help stave off the boredom!

I finally broke down and bought a nice little notebook PC, for years I always felt that I would never need or even want to use one. I've been telling myself for weeks now that if I just wait one more week I'll be back up to speed, that shit has gotten old! I'm tired of not having my own 'net connection with MY own PC so I took the plunge. It was way outside my budget but I felt I had no choice. It has built in hardware for both wired and wireless and also dial-up internet. The damn thing works great actually, much better than I expected but still a lot slower than my screaming fast homebuilt desktops.

Of course, when I finally get my old 'net connection back the laptop will likely gather tons of dust! LOL Ya just can't win...

I reopened Blogs Gone Wild! on Monday though, and now that I have a relatively stable place to work from maybe I can continue with my work and classes, Yay! Finally some good shit!! Woohoo! It was nice to see a blog order in my email the very next morning!

Here's a couple of pics from the past few weeks on the road. These were taken in Tombstone.
I signed a dollar and they hung it up in Vogans Alley for the next time I pass thru town, doing that assures that you'll have enough money to get a shot of whiskey, a hot bath and a shave if you're broke the next time. Some kind of cool old cowboy tradition.

That outlaw was having a bad day huh? I think he needs to see a doc or maybe a necromancer...

One of my blogger friends has sent me a cash donation in spite of me refusing such offers, dear lady, you rock and I thank you from the bottom of my heart!! I'll try to put it to good use!!! Hugs and kisses!! I would put your name here but I didn't think to ask if that was ok. I'm constantly amazed at the outpouring of well wishes and sympathy for my situation that you guys have shown me for the past few weeks with all your sweet comments and emails, it's definitely one of the biggest things that keeps me going!

I may be down but I ain't out!! Keepin' the faith!

A Dirty Rotten Trick

2005-09-24T17:56:00.000-05:00

I'm completely sick of living out of my car, I haven't slept in my own bed for 4 weeks now. Hell, I don't even have a freekin' bed, it got soaked in the flood and it's sitting in the gut pile along with the rest of the destroyed furnishings. Things were starting to look a lot better a couple of days ago though. The power was on at the house, and we had gotten a lot of the cleanup done. Mail was being delivered once again and there were cleanup crews showing up in the neighborhoods to pick up the debris that has mounted from people dragging the contents of their homes out to the curb. It's a shell of a house but almost livable, just like the hundreds and thousands of others in endless rows up and down every street in nearly every neighborhood in the metropolitan area.

Now we have the latest setback. We had hoped that Rita wouldn't hit our area too hard and that we would be able to stay put, but yesterday morning the power went off and we decided to throw in the towel and haul ass north once again. We stayed at my brothers home last night and listened to the wind howl, watched the trees sway and the water rise. We were safe though and at least the power remained on. Now all of the roads south are closed again, we can't return to the New Orleans area even if we wanted to. The parish wasn't under a mandatory evacuation order for Rita but we have this sinking feeling that the house may have gotten flooded again. No big deal I guess, there's not much left to destroy anyway! New Orleans certainly got a lot more water, the breeches in the levees has reflooded the city to such an extent it has probably pushed repopulating the city back a few more weeks and beyond.

Next, it will be a mighty earthquake that will swallow the entire city, gobbling up all of the swamp the city is built upon into some deep, dark black hole near the center of the earth. Or maybe a meteor will collide with the area, leveling everything for a couple hundred miles, and burning everything else for hundreds of miles beyond that into flaming cinders. We can only hope! LOL

Our lives are completly on hold, everything I had planned for myself has fallen by the wayside, my classes, the new company I wanted to start, my chemotherapy, a new job. My latest blood tests showed good news and bad news, my hepatitis c viral load is very high and I seriously need to start chemo because my liver condition is going downhill daily according to the doctors, I think I'm actually starting to feel some physical effects. Once I start the chemo though I can't stop, that means I need to be in a stable situation and location in which to receive the weekly medications. On the good news, I'm apparently geno type 3 which is more successfully treated, the exact statistics are unknown to me at the moment. Every new day seems to present new problems, new locations, new living arrangements and fresh uncertaintys.

I do have a lot to be thankful for though, I'm alive for one and so is my family and I'm not stranded in a refugee shelter with my family, with no money, (or even if you have money, no way to access it because your bank was underwater) no car, no food, no home and no forseeable end to it all, sitting on my ass, depending on handouts for my day to day existence because there is absolutely nothing else. Hell knows there are thousands in that boat, and more will be arriving in the coming weeks. It will get better though! That's what I keep telling myself anyway.

A Few Pics...

2005-09-20T19:14:00.000-05:00

I was finally able to transfer some pictures!! Yay!! The TV and VCR, Digital Cable box and the DVD player are all moldy oldies now! LOL!! The shit smells so bad... now we have smellavision!! And thats just the living room stuff, there's an even larger TV in the den with all the goodies in the very same fucked up condition.

A pretty good shot of the tree resting on the back of the house, you can see my dad in the red shirt inside the patio door on the right. We're gonna have to hire people to come in and remove the tree, the squirrels are gonna be PISSED!! hehe
One of the first things I had to do was run upstairs and check on the grrrls!! They both fired right up!! Woohoo!! Still no 'net connection of any kind over there though, again I'm blogging from a friends house a few miles away.
A quick self-portrait while I was out in the yard surveying and taking photos of everything, I took over 160 pictures of damage inside and outside of the house.
I have tons more photos that I will upload later when I can. We've been working our slap happy asses off cleaning all the debris out of the lower floor. The stench is incredible after 3 weeks of moisture sitting closed up in a hot wet house. There is water trapped inside the kitchen cabinets, mold and mildew growing up the walls, the floors and carpets are all ruined and we moved every stick of furniture out into the backyard yesterday, all destroyed!! Virtually everything on the lower floor is unsalvageable. I'll have to post pics of the gut piles after we're finished hehe But we're getting it done! Hell yeah!!

We may have to haul ass again in the next day or two if Rita turns our way, wouldn't that be a kick in the ass to get another one right over us!!! The governor cracked me up last night, mentioning someshit about moving all the stuff that you've just dragged OUT of your house back INSIDE!!! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

The power is on...

2005-09-18T09:30:00.000-05:00

Made it into the house yesterday and it's quite a mess. The water level inside was only about 2 to 3 ft but the water has soaked into the walls several feet higher than that. The big oak in the backyard is indeed leaning against the back of the house, causing a considerable amount of damage to the roof in several places, and rain is able to leak down all the way to the lower floor. A branch was thru my bedroom window, it had broken thru from top to bottom and destroyed the window frame. It was kinda fun to stand on top of my bed with a chainsaw to cut the branches back that were sticking thru. Then I pulled a small sheet of plywood out of the attic and used my bed as a workbench to trim it with the chainsaw to fit the window frame and screwed it to the window frame, weeee!! Who knew it could be so much fun to use a chainsaw indoors!! The glass had shattered all over the room and debris and leaves have been blowing in for the past couple weeks, LOL

Amazingly both of my main PC's still work and booted up just fine, I haven't had a chance to check the other two though, maybe today. The cable is down so I have no 'net connection there, I'm blogging from a family friends house a few miles away. We will be staying here for a short time, how long is anybody's guess. The lower floor is disgustingly filthy, the smell was overwhelming and there is shitloads of mold and mildew covering everything. I was able to get the A/C running, one of the main fans was frozen. A little persuasion in the right place and I was able to get it going. It's been running all night, hopefully when we go there today it won't smell as bad and a lot of the moisture will be removed.

It is extremely hot and humid here, I'm seriously missing the dry air that I quickly became accustomed to in both Texas and Arizona the past few weeks. Just walking aound taking photos was enough to be sweat soaked to the bone, and miserable. I became sick from dehydration for a short while but a large Gatorade fixed that! I must have taken 50 - 60 pictures all around and inside the house but I still have no way to get the pics off my camera onto the 'net, hopefully soon!

I think it's taking a toll on my folks though, my mom was crying last night and this morning they were fighting like cats and dogs over trivial shit, silly shit like who said what and yada yada yada who cares. My own mood has been bitchy and sullen even though I always try to see the bright side of things, and can usually find a reason to laugh at even the worst of situations. The cleanup will be a daunting task for us and everyone else involved, living anywhere in the gulf south. The sound of helicopters passing over is a constant reminder that we are living under martial law and a strict curfew of dusk to dawn.

Went to pick up a few grocery items at a local Winn Dixie store and the lines just to get INTO the store wrapped around the side of the building and there was no place to park hehe. What a reality check! Hopefully that will abate soon enough, we ended up going to another store where it wasn't quite as bad.

Anyway, I have to go now, headed over to the house to help with cleanup. Weee!! hehe I'll try to post again as soon as I can!!

A Public Service Announcement

2005-09-14T20:13:00.000-05:00

Attention
All drivers in the Dallas/Fort Worth area:
It is physically impossible for two vehicles to safely occupy the same space at the same time. Please stop attempting to defy the laws of physics. LOL

Back on the road again...

Looks like we'll be headed back to New Orleans first thing in the morning to survey the damage and retrieve anything left of value in the house. We'll likely spend the night at my brothers home on the way down in Hammond, La. Then continue from there the following day. I was able to get my hepatitis and tetanus vaccines earlier today at a county health services center. I must say that Texas has been great, friendly people, and very helpful and accomodating. The shots were free with a N.O. identification, very cool! The other night my folks were eating at a restaurant and when the manager learned they were from N.O. the entire dinner was on the house!! (insert ladder joke here...)

I'll be taking pics of course, in fact I've been taking photos since I left N.O. originally, I just haven't had the chance to get them off my camera and online. I'll have to put them up on Flickr when I can and post a few here. I will likely be without a 'net connection for at least a few days, maybe more!! That part sucks, I know I'll miss you guys if I'm away too long, gahhh! I hate when that happens!!!!

One more thing... I say we elect my buddie Old Horsetail Snake to head up FEMA, hehe. Sending dirt is one of the best ideas I've heard so far!

Luv you guys!!

Stomping the shit out of assholes...

2005-09-12T15:49:00.000-05:00

I've noticed a few comments by people (asshats) around the blogging community where people have blatantly stated that the people of New Orleans in it's entirety deserved exactly what they got, just for being stupid enough to live in a city where a disaster such as Katrina was possible. I would like to point out to these MORONS that people continue to live in places like San Francisco, does anyone remember the terrible quake of 1989? And the quakes and horrific brushfires wiping out entire towns and neighborhoods in Southern California and Los Angeles. The tornados that yearly cause death and destruction all across states like Oklahoma and Kansas. The entire state of Florida? The coastlines of not only Louisiana but also Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, North and South Carolina? Where the fuck do you want all these people to go? Look at the widespread destruction all across the ENTIRE state of Mississipi from Katrina, not just the coast line.

I lived in Atlanta , Georgia for many years and I can clearly remember a number of hurricanes that caused considerable destruction in the Atlanta area, and that city is well away from any coastline. What about blizzards and ice storms in the far northern states that occur almost yearly causing billions in damage, killing many. Maybe we should move all of the people out of those states as well.

To the people that have that attitude about the destruction and aftermath of this disaster, fuck you!! I hope a disaster hits your home next, Bastards! You're next!! With that I am reprinting an article here that says a lot about the reasons why New Orleans exists in the first place. Thanks to the person that forwarded it to me in an email. The link to the original article is here.

New Orleans: A Geopolitical Prize
By George Friedman

Thursday 01 September 2005

The American political system was founded in Philadelphia, but the American nation was built on the vast farmlands that stretch from the Alleghenies to the Rockies. That farmland produced the wealth that funded American industrialization: It permitted the formation of a class of small landholders who, amazingly, could produce more than they could consume. They could sell their excess crops in the east and in Europe and save that money, which eventually became the founding capital of American industry.

But it was not the extraordinary land nor the farmers and ranchers who alone set the process in motion. Rather, it was geography - the extraordinary system of rivers that flowed through the Midwest and allowed them to ship their surplus to the rest of the world. All of the rivers flowed into one - the Mississippi - and the Mississippi flowed to the ports in and around one city: New Orleans. It was in New Orleans that the barges from upstream were unloaded and their cargos stored, sold and reloaded on ocean-going vessels. Until last Sunday, New Orleans was, in many ways, the pivot of the American economy.

For that reason, the Battle of New Orleans in January 1815 was a key moment in American history. Even though the battle occurred after the War of 1812 was over, had the British taken New Orleans, we suspect they wouldn't have given it back. Without New Orleans, the entire Louisiana Purchase would have been valueless to the United States. Or, to state it more precisely, the British would control the region because, at the end of the day, the value of the Purchase was the land and the rivers - which all converged on the Mississippi and the ultimate port of New Orleans. The hero of the battle was Andrew Jackson, and when he became president, his obsession with Texas had much to do with keeping the Mexicans away from New Orleans.

During the Cold War, a macabre topic of discussion among bored graduate students who studied such things was this: If the Soviets could destroy one city with a large nuclear device, which would it be? The usual answers were Washington or New York. For me, the answer was simple: New Orleans. If the Mississippi River was shut to traffic, then the foundations of the economy would be shattered. The industrial minerals needed in the factories wouldn't come in, and the agricultural wealth wouldn't flow out. Alternative routes really weren't available. The Germans knew it too: A U-boat campaign occurred near the mouth of the Mississippi during World War II. Both the Germans and Stratfor have stood with Andy Jackson: New Orleans was the prize.

Last Sunday, nature took out New Orleans almost as surely as a nuclear strike. Hurricane Katrina's geopolitical effect was not, in many ways, distinguishable from a mushroom cloud. The key exit from North America was closed. The petrochemical industry, which has become an added value to the region since Jackson's days, was at risk. The navigability of the Mississippi south of New Orleans was a question mark. New Orleans as a city and as a port complex had ceased to exist, and it was not clear that it could recover.

The ports of South Louisiana and New Orleans, which run north and south of the city, are as important today as at any point during the history of the republic. On its own merit, the Port of South Louisiana is the largest port in the United States by tonnage and the fifth-largest in the world. It exports more than 52 million tons a year, of which more than half are agricultural products - corn, soybeans and so on. A larger proportion of US agriculture flows out of the port. Almost as much cargo, nearly 57 million tons, comes in through the port - including not only crude oil, but chemicals and fertilizers, coal, concrete and so on.

A simple way to think about the New Orleans port complex is that it is where the bulk commodities of agriculture go out to the world and the bulk commodities of industrialism come in. The commodity chain of the global food industry starts here, as does that of American industrialism. If these facilities are gone, more than the price of goods shifts: The very physical structure of the global economy would have to be reshaped. Consider the impact to the US auto industry if steel doesn't come up the river, or the effect on global food supplies if US corn and soybeans don't get to the markets.

The problem is that there are no good shipping alternatives. River transport is cheap, and most of the commodities we are discussing have low value-to-weight ratios. The US transport system was built on the assumption that these commodities would travel to and from New Orleans by barge, where they would be loaded on ships or offloaded. Apart from port capacity elsewhere in the United States, there aren't enough trucks or rail cars to handle the long-distance hauling of these enormous quantities - assuming for the moment that the economics could be managed, which they can't be.

The focus in the media has been on the oil industry in Louisiana and Mississippi. This is not a trivial question, but in a certain sense, it is dwarfed by the shipping issue. First, Louisiana is the source of about 15 percent of US-produced petroleum, much of it from the Gulf. The local refineries are critical to American infrastructure. Were all of these facilities to be lost, the effect on the price of oil worldwide would be extraordinarily painful. If the river itself became unnavigable or if the ports are no longer functioning, however, the impact to the wider economy would be significantly more severe. In a sense, there is more flexibility in oil than in the physical transport of these other commodities.

There is clearly good news as information comes in. By all accounts, the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, which services supertankers in the Gulf, is intact. Port Fourchon, which is the center of extraction operations in the Gulf, has sustained damage but is recoverable. The status of the oil platforms is unclear and it is not known what the underwater systems look like, but on the surface, the damage - though not trivial - is manageable.

The news on the river is also far better than would have been expected on Sunday. The river has not changed its course. No major levees containing the river have burst. The Mississippi apparently has not silted up to such an extent that massive dredging would be required to render it navigable. Even the port facilities, although apparently damaged in many places and destroyed in few, are still there. The river, as transport corridor, has not been lost.

What has been lost is the city of New Orleans and many of the residential suburban areas around it. The population has fled, leaving behind a relatively small number of people in desperate straits. Some are dead, others are dying, and the magnitude of the situation dwarfs the resources required to ameliorate their condition. But it is not the population that is trapped in New Orleans that is of geopolitical significance: It is the population that has left and has nowhere to return to.

The oil fields, pipelines and ports required a skilled workforce in order to operate. That workforce requires homes. They require stores to buy food and other supplies. Hospitals and doctors. Schools for their children. In other words, in order to operate the facilities critical to the United States, you need a workforce to do it - and that workforce is gone. Unlike in other disasters, that workforce cannot return to the region because they have no place to live. New Orleans is gone, and the metropolitan area surrounding New Orleans is either gone or so badly damaged that it will not be inhabitable for a long time.

It is possible to jury-rig around this problem for a short time. But the fact is that those who have left the area have gone to live with relatives and friends. Those who had the ability to leave also had networks of relationships and resources to manage their exile. But those resources are not infinite - and as it becomes apparent that these people will not be returning to New Orleans any time soon, they will be enrolling their children in new schools, finding new jobs, finding new accommodations. If they have any insurance money coming, they will collect it. If they have none, then - whatever emotional connections they may have to their home - their economic connection to it has been severed. In a very short time, these people will be making decisions that will start to reshape population and workforce patterns in the region.

A city is a complex and ongoing process - one that requires physical infrastructure to support the people who live in it and people to operate that physical infrastructure. We don't simply mean power plants or sewage treatment facilities, although they are critical. Someone has to be able to sell a bottle of milk or a new shirt. Someone has to be able to repair a car or do surgery. And the people who do those things, along with the infrastructure that supports them, are gone - and they are not coming back anytime soon.

It is in this sense, then, that it seems almost as if a nuclear weapon went off in New Orleans. The people mostly have fled rather than died, but they are gone. Not all of the facilities are destroyed, but most are. It appears to us that New Orleans and its environs have passed the point of recoverability. The area can recover, to be sure, but only with the commitment of massive resources from outside - and those resources would always be at risk to another Katrina.

The displacement of population is the crisis that New Orleans faces. It is also a national crisis, because the largest port in the United States cannot function without a city around it. The physical and business processes of a port cannot occur in a ghost town, and right now, that is what New Orleans is. It is not about the facilities, and it is not about the oil. It is about the loss of a city's population and the paralysis of the largest port in the United States.

Let's go back to the beginning. The United States historically has depended on the Mississippi and its tributaries for transport. Barges navigate the river. Ships go on the ocean. The barges must offload to the ships and vice versa. There must be a facility to empower this exchange. It is also the facility where goods are stored in transit. Without this port, the river can't be used. Protecting that port has been, from the time of the Louisiana Purchase, a fundamental national security issue for the United States.

Katrina has taken out the port - not by destroying the facilities, but by rendering the area uninhabited and potentially uninhabitable. That means that even if the Mississippi remains navigable, the absence of a port near the mouth of the river makes the Mississippi enormously less useful than it was. For these reasons, the United States has lost not only its biggest port complex, but also the utility of its river transport system - the foundation of the entire American transport system. There are some substitutes, but none with sufficient capacity to solve the problem.

It follows from this that the port will have to be revived and, one would assume, the city as well. The ports around New Orleans are located as far north as they can be and still be accessed by ocean-going vessels. The need for ships to be able to pass each other in the waterways, which narrow to the north, adds to the problem. Besides, the Highway 190 bridge in Baton Rouge blocks the river going north. New Orleans is where it is for a reason: The United States needs a city right there.

New Orleans is not optional for the United States' commercial infrastructure. It is a terrible place for a city to be located, but exactly the place where a city must exist. With that as a given, a city will return there because the alternatives are too devastating. The harvest is coming, and that means that the port will have to be opened soon. As in Iraq, premiums will be paid to people prepared to endure the hardships of working in New Orleans. But in the end, the city will return because it has to.

Geopolitics is the stuff of permanent geographical realities and the way they interact with political life. Geopolitics created New Orleans. Geopolitics caused American presidents to obsess over its safety. And geopolitics will force the city's resurrection, even if it is in the worst imaginable place.

Thank you Mr. Friedman, I hope you don't mind the reprinting!

What can I say???

2005-09-10T15:13:00.000-05:00

It's all been said, the good stuff, the bad stuff, the sad stuff, the happy stuff. The blame game, the political backstabbing, the talking heads on the tube are incessant and annoying, stupefying, mindless and useless. Sometimes I wanna just reach thru the screen and hug the intelligent people and the next moment, strangle the idiots. I have my own opinion on a lot of what I've seen, some good, some bad. Praise and thanks go to the rescuers, whoever they may be and however they were able to do it, even if they saved one single person from the mire they are a hero, no doubt about that. Just being there and lending a helping hand in any way shape or form makes you a hero.

I consider myself to be one of the very lucky ones, all my kin are alive and well, I'm healthy and well fed, warm and am able to choose my destiny from here on. Too many don't have that option, they also have no where to go and have lost everything and loved ones, I feel very sorry for them, especially the ones that had no choice but to stay for whatever reason. If they had a way out of the city before the storm and didn't take advantage of it then all I can say is fuck 'em. Don't whine to me or anyone else about your fucked up situation, it's not my fault and no one else's but your own. You made the choice, now shut the fuck up and live with it.

To the peeps that had no way out, I'm sad for you and I know this country will help in every way possible, the outpouring of food, money, clothing and shelter from all directions has been nothing short of amazing. Offers for a place to stay have been pouring in from my blogging friends, everyday I get a new case of the warm fuzzies. (I like that) hehe.

I heard this morning that my brother's house in Hammond, La. now has power and they are packing up to head out of Baton Rouge and home. I may end up there later this week, but it promises to be a very crowded house from what I undertand. I may move on from there rather quickly, who knows where! LOL I would love to do a blogging tour to meet as many of you guys as possible but money is a bit tight and the cost of gas alone has put a damper on driving, that part sucks. I still may do it though....

We also heard that they've locked down the area I live in, Jefferson Parish for the next 3 weeks at least, going to the house to retrieve personal belongings is out of the question now! And it's also confirmed that the huge oak tree in the backyard has tipped over and is leaning against the house, damaging the roof and rear wall but hasn't actually crushed the house. Also that one of it's branches has busted thru my bedroom window, the idea of squirrels and birds moving into my bedroom while I'm gone pisses me off!! Just stay out of my computers and what remains of my clothes ya little shits!!

It took a lot of doing but I was finally able to register online with FEMA for aid, at first they tried to tell me that I don't exist (I always hate when that happens!) although I don't know what they can do for me or will. I had tried the highly publicized phone number they keep flashing on the TV but calling that sumbitch gets you a machine that says they're too busy to talk to you, tells you to try back later and then hangs up on you!! WTF is that about! Bastards... I was able to register with the Texas Human Resources office, they gave me a debit card for some grocery money (food stamps). I've also gotten in touch with the Methodist Hospital here in Dallas, they want me to come into the liver transplant unit over there and get my blood samples done to check on my health and liver condition, so I'm happy about that. They will also hook me up with a Doc if they see a problem with my blood samples...

I plan on meeting tCj and a couple of other bloggers (that I don't know) in the Dallas area tomorrow sometime. We've talked by phone a couple times, she sounds really sweet, hehe. I'm going to try to enjoy myself as much as possible and keep a smiling face up, a chip on my shoulder for the asshats and just live. I really don't see a point in fretting or crying about what's lost or what might be lost. I just want you guys to know that I'm doing ok and look forward to reading more from you all as I try to catch up on all your blogs!!! Big hugs and lotsa poinks!!!!! =)

On the road again...

2005-09-07T08:56:00.000-05:00

I'm heading back towards the Dallas/Fort Worth area this morning and may be offline for a couple days. I might make a sleepover stop along the way depending on how sleepy I get. Kristin if you read this, make sure you send me some contact info to my biteseven at gmail.com address! I don't have a phone number for you or even your email address with me.

Have a happy humpday!! =)

Home Front Update

2005-09-05T14:15:00.000-05:00

I don't have a lot of news really, but I wanted to update you guys anyway. My grandma and uncle are still in N.O. and are doing ok. I've heard that they may be letting people back into my area of the city starting tomorrow to gather remaining personal belongings but that's not confirmed. I can imagine that the moment they announce that any road is open going in it will immediately become inundated with travelers and sightseers and the traffic will be a bumper to bumper crawl for hours on end. That doesn't sound very inviting. I was talking to my mom yesterday and I think they've decided to forego heading back for now until there is power and water. My brother and family who are staying at friends in Baton Rouge still do not have power at their home in the Hammond, La. area so they are holding tight as well.

I may be heading back up to Dallas, Tx. in the next day or two to rejoin my family and then go from there, playing it by ear, subject to the living conditions at the house. For now I'm safe and healthy and Maggie has been a wonderful hostess along with the love and attentions of her two really cool dogs and of course the horses! Having your own parking spot is pretty damn nice too!

I had been working on this new template for weeks in my spare time before the storm, I'm glad I had it saved on the 'net where I could transfer it over to here. That's not the really cool, super creepy animated header that I was working on though, that one is on my PC at the house. I threw this one together rather quickly this morning just so that there would be something to match the template.

I've finally gotten to do some blog commenting in the past couple days but I haven't been able to hit everyone, I'm not ignoring you!! Thank you all for the way cool comments and I'll try to visit everyone as time (and internet connection, LOL) permits!! Hugs!!!

Hangin's too good for me!

2005-09-04T18:25:00.000-05:00

Went down to Tombstone the other day where I was promptly arrested for wearing flip-flops down Main St. After a quick and dirty shotgun trial they decided a hanging was in order. As they were tossing the rope around my neck Maggie pulled out her revolver and shot the rope just above my head and we ran, making our escape thru Big Nose Kate's saloon. Damn that was a close one!

We're currently holed up at Maggiez hideout waiting for the posse.

News from N.O.

2005-09-03T09:01:00.000-05:00

We've finally gotten word on my grandmother and uncle, they are both safe and sound and they didn't even get flooded at their home. The house is barely 3 blocks from the west bank of the Mississippi in Algiers, which as the crow flies is only a couple of miles from the downtown/french quarter area. Amazing that they have escaped virtually unscathed while directly across the river the destruction is widespread. I'm very thankful for this news as you can well imagine!

She is still being stubborn though, the fact that they are still trying to evacuate thousands from N.O. hasn't shaken her determination to stay at her home. They do have water and I believe gas for cooking, but no electricity. At 92 yrs old she is a very tough lady with a heart of gold and a very sweet disposition. She really is something special and is very well loved by the entire family. She always has some very fascinating stories about life in N.O. and she loves to talk!!

This is excellent news!!

More Shock with a bit of Dismay

2005-09-02T12:36:00.000-05:00

Georgia Rep. John Lewis of the State of Georgia needs to shut the fuck up. Who the hell does he think he is? What the fuck does he really understand about what's going other than the sensationalized BS that is coming up on our TV screens by a media that has to cut to commercials every 10 minutes. It sounds to me like he is trying to incite even further lawlessness, looting and even riots with us utterly stupid speech on the news this morning. He thinks that racism is to blame for the large number of blacks seen on the streets, while totally ignoring the plain fact that New Orleans is a city with a majority black population. If it's anyone's "fault" it's his and people like him that instead of "doing" they stand around "blaming". His inflamatory rhetoric almost made me sick to my stomach while he complained about the plight of "his" people. The plain fact is that all the people in N.O. are "our" people.

If the motherfucker was truly concerned why don't he put his money where his mouth is and help organize some relief efforts from his state instead of mouthing off that people are being discriminated against in the wake of this immense national disaster. I have yet to see even a single moment of anything even remotely racist by the good and brave people that are risking their very health and lives to help the victims. Or, better yet tell us that he himself has put up the dough to pay for some sorely needed relief supplies and that he will be riding shotgun in the first truck to help unload the vehicles that could not only bring supplies in but help ferry people out. I can't even believe that the media has given this idiot a voice over our airwaves, and before you criticise me for what I have to say, just know that I lived in Atlanta for over 20 years and I know a thing or two about John Lewis. We do not need more talking heads spewing utterly useless information about this situation.

One thing that we do need more of is people with level heads helping out and organizing with ideas and true leadership instead of finger pointing and laying blame. John Lewis needs to get his head out of his ass, or maybe better yet, stick it further in to a point where we can no longer hear his voice.

$#*! you John Lewis!

Shock and Awe

2005-09-01T14:23:00.000-05:00

Yeah, I know you've heard that phrase before but I'm stealing it. I can't think of any other way to better describe what I'm feeling. And, you could say that Hurricane Katrina has executed a mother nature style of Operation Shock and Awe on the gulf coast mid-south. The situation that has unfolded after the storm is simply mind boggling, and it appears that it will likely have major long term effects on the entire country. I'm now officially a refugee, with no home and virtually all of my personal possesions are wiped out. The only things that I was able to grab were a couple pair of jeans, shoes, a few shirts, toiletries and my medications. When we woke up early Sunday morning and saw that the strength of the storm had increased overnight and was headed almost directly over New Orleans we quickly decided to bail. We also saw that they had called for mandatory evacuations for our area in Jefferson Parish.

That began one very long journey of bumper to bumper traffic headed north away from the city. Some highways were restricted by police because they were already too congested for more traffic and I was forced to go almost due north. It took me nearly 10 hours at the wheel to go a distance that would have ordinarily taken less than 2 on an ordinary day. At first I was going to go to my brothers place in Hammond, La. but they decided to leave as well because his home was very near to the path of the storm. After a few phone calls on my cell between me and my family we decided to meet up in Dallas, Tx. Maggie of Maggiez Farm had been planning to come visit me in N.O. next week and I called her and we talked about me coming to see her instead. I decided to spend one night in Dallas on the road and the next morning I left early and headed for Arizona which is where I am at the moment, writing this post from her PC.

Her generosity and kindness has been overwhelming and I feel very welcome here, she has opened up her home to me to stay as long as I need, although at this point in time I'm not sure how long I will stay. I will be playing that by ear depending on the situation in N.O. Hopefully they may allow people into the area soon to retrieve whatever personal belongings that we might have remaining, but moving back there will likely be a matter of weeks and possibly months before the area can actually support a population.

I just now got a call from my mother in Dallas and she has informed me that the house is still standing but the roof looks heavily damaged, and also it appears that the huge oak tree in the middle of the backyard may have fallen over onto the house. The details are a bit shaky, some of you may recall a picture that I posted before of the front of the house, and from the street out front it always looks like that tree is leaning against the house because it so large. So, we're still not sure. There is also no news whatsoever of the welfare of my grandmother and uncle that stayed behind. Right now that is my biggest worry, I really hope they are ok.

I got to read some of the comments that you guys left on my last post and the outpouring of love and sympathy from you all actually moved me to tears, and I'm not one to cry very easily! I'm going to keep you all informed of my situation as best as I can! I don't think I will be able to access my regular ISP's email address so if anyone wants or needs to contact me you can try sending to my biteseven at gmail.com address. Thanks everyone for caring, hugs and kisses!!!!

We're safe!!

2005-08-30T15:05:00.000-05:00

Thanks everyone for all of your wonderful concerns and comments. You guys rock! I'm ok and my family is ok for now. The glaring exception is the welfare of my 92 yr old grandmother and my uncle who chose to weather out the storm. Their home is in old Algiers almost directly across the river from downtown New Orleans. We have been unable to get any news of their whereabouts. We have a feeling that they went to a shelter at the last minute but phone service is still down and there is no way to confirm that. I am very worried about them.

When I left home Sunday morning I had no choice but to head directly north to Jackson, Miss. but I decided to detour on the way up when I was finally able to get off the interstate and head towards Dallas, Tx by way of Natchez and Shreveport. I spent the night at my sisters house in Dallas and when I realized just how bad the storm was going to hit I decided to leave there and head west. I had an invitation from a very cool lady in Arizona to come out and visit and I decided that this would be a good time to do just that. I'm currrently in a small town near Tucson, Az out in the desert. It's been an interesting ride with a couple of minor problems along the way including a flat tire but I'm fine.

I'm staying in touch with my folks who originally ended up in Jackson, Miss. but they have since gone to stay at my sisters house in Dallas as well. A friend of the family decided he would ride the storm out in his home a block away from mine and we did get news from him that his house was flooded up to the mid floor of his split level home. They did get one short phone call from him and he was alive so far but stranded in his home. Gauging by what he told them it seems very likely that my own house was flooded up to at least waist level. That's not good!

I have no idea when I will be able to return home, but for now I'm safe and sound and have a place to stay as long as I need it. I'm really hoping to get some word of my grandmothers condition and I will update you guys when I get any new info. My home is on the southside of N.O. about 6miles from downtown just across the river. I have heard that the power will be off for an extended period, possibly even weeks and there is not even any fresh water available. Thankfully the house and contents are flood insured, but I have no idea if the house even has a freekin' roof on it at this point. There is a LOT of irreplaceble stuff there, money can't replace those things.

I do have 'net access but it's somewhat limited. I'll be back though!! You can bet on that!!

Bailing out,,,

2005-08-28T07:41:00.000-05:00

and hauling ass!! Katrina is a mean, nasty bitch and is headed straight for us. Our entire area is under mandatory evacuation orders and the house will likely be very flooded!! Sumbitch!!!! What a fucking mess!!

I'm probably going to end up at my brothers house for the next few days, further north above Lake Pontchartrain. He has a 'net connection, hopefully it will continue working. He is actually in the path of the storm as well, but on higher ground.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and I'll see you guys as soon as I can!! =)

Forbode

2005-08-26T12:56:00.000-05:00

A form of ESP, as in: Using the air freshener before you use the toilet.

I just received the results of my webmasters certification class midterm exam. I scored 98%!!!! Can I get a couple of hell yeahs and a hallelujah? hehe weeeeee!!!!!

I think I'll stop holding my breath now... whew!!!

My New Kitty ... Updated!

2005-08-24T13:16:00.000-05:00

I have a new pet! It's some kind of weird looking stray cat, hehe. It seems to like eating the birdseed spilled on the ground under the birdfeeder and it only comes out at night. It's kind of creepy looking but it looks so cuddly doesn't it? I took this pic from the backdoor, about 10ft away and it was very dark at the time.

Here kitty, kitty, kitty!!

Sorry about the lack of updates lately, I've been very busy with catching up on schoolwork and blogwork. Good news is that I am working on a commercial website for someone that I recently did a blog template for. They liked my work so much that they have let me redesign their business site and it looks promising that it will lead to a lot more commercial work in the future. Exciting!! woohoo!! You know how I love showing off but you'll just have to wait till it's completed to see it! hehe

I'm not going to be around much for the next few days at least but I will be back with a vengeance and an entirely new template for this blog, it's looking killer and suitably creepy, just in time for one of my favorite seasons of the year, Helloween!! weee!! It's almost done but I'm still working on the Flash header that will have some really cool content. The template is completely new under the hood although it will still be 3 columns like this one. If you poke around you can find a sneak peek...

I finally updated the "other" blog for those that are interested and I promise that I will get caught up on visiting everyone soon!! Keep the faith!!

Update: Where the hell is MY head, hehe. Here's 2 new templates for me to show off, hahaha! One is at J's Ramblings, one very cool lady from Cali and the other is The Dick List with a rocking animated .gif header. Bring your sense of humor to the Dick List site, very, very funny!

Seafood Platter

2005-08-19T08:52:00.000-05:00

One of the many things that separates humans from the rest of the animals on this planet is the ability to create on demand and use fire at will. Without that one basic, yet fundamental ability, life on earth would be sorely different than it is today. Virtually everything that we create, use or develop depends upon using that skill. Sure, we could have continued on with stone tools to work with wood and other soft materials, but the abilty to create metals from ore is what really started humankind onto the path of technology that we now depend upon for nearly every aspect of our lives. We have been using fire in all sorts of primitive ways for eons now and you would think that fire safety would by now be inborn and bred into our psyche and that you should naturally have a basic understanding of how it works. In other words, the shit hurts like a bitch when you touch it, no? Yes!!

We went out to dinner last night at Middendorf's on Lake Maurepas just northwest of New Orleans for some of the best seafood around. The fried catfish is their specialty and they can cook it like nobody's business. People come from all over just to eat there, it's always a good experience and the place is out in the middle of the swamps on the edge of the lake. The occasion was my dad's birthday and my mom brought along a beautiful cake to slice up after the meal. My sister was in from Dallas and my brother, his wife and two teenage sons were also there to join in on the mini celebration. After everyone was suitably stuffed with a wide variety of seafoods it was time to cut the cake. I watched as my mom took out 3 candles and stuck them in the top of the cake and attempted to light them using my lighter. She ended up burning herself because she angled the lighter downward with her finger above the fire rather than below. I could see instantly that the way she was holding would lead to disaster but I was too late to stop it! She burned her finger! I dutifully pointed out the correct way to hold the lighter, the candles got lit and the wish was made as we sung happy birthday.

Witnessing my mom burn herself immediately reminded me of an incident that I was a part of years ago on a construction site. One of my crew members had burned his hand badly with a welding torch and had to be sent to the doctor for care. He had some lame ass, mumbo jumbo excuse for burning himself, something about his hand slipping or something and it really made no sense to me. But, as the supervisor on the job I had to fill out an accident report describing what had happened, etc. One of the questions on the form was "What was done to insure that this type of accident never occurs again?" I filled in "Instructed employees not to aim welding torches at their hands." Which, even as smart alecky as I was being was the absolute truth, I told them not to aim the torches at their hands! You would think that this would be an unnecessary warning, wouldn't you? Apparently not, maybe we really aren't as smart as we think we are, hehe.

Before turning in the report I had to have the man read and sign it. When he saw what I had written he yelled out "This make me look stupid!" I just laughed and said yes it does, funny huh? And then I turned it in. I think he was pissed at me for quite a while, hehe.

Oh yeah, I ordered the seafood platter for dinner, damn, that sucker was piled high with shrimp and oysters and a huge stuffed crab and lots and lots of fried catfish and fries and holy shit, that fucker was good!! Yummy, but I couldn't eat it all!! But don't worry, I brought the leftovers home for lunch today. I think I'll use the microwave to reheat it though, them fires can sure be tricky!!!

Click Click BOOM!

2005-08-16T12:10:00.000-05:00

Every now and then I get the urge to just go out and throw rocks. I used to love throwing rocks when I was a kid, it was all the entertainment I could afford usually. I always loved the feel of a good smooth rock rolling around in my palm, rolling it between my fingers, enjoying the cold hard feel that made me feel invincible, and joyfully destructive. I was an excellent rock thrower, I would hurl them at everything and anything, old cans and bottles, trees and windows, old cars and trucks and sometimes even people when I was angry. I don't recall ever meeting anyone that could throw better than me, I could hurl them very hard and with very high accuracy, hitting my target much more often than not. Maybe I should have been a pitcher, but baseball bored me to tears growing up. I just liked throwing things and I wasn't allowed to just throw the ball, I had to throw to a specific spot, and I hated being told what to do.

I did try out for pitching and learned to throw a ball very well. I could throw those hard and fast too. I was a terror in the schoolyards with a baseball, especially those great big indoor softballs. I loved hurling those at people, I could wack someone in the back of the head or in the stomach easily from a long ways off. Yeah, I was a bully, but not just any bully. I was the guy that kicked the asses of the real bullys, the assholes in school that always seemed to make everyone else's life miserable, that picked on girls and fat kids for no reason and were always going around picking fights with everyone to prove... what? I don't know, they were just assholes, plain and simple and I loved making their lives miserable in any way that I could. I knew these guys were afraid of me and I cultivated that image readily by going out of my way to step in to a fight even though I wasn't directly involved.

I also hated when these idiots would do stupid things to disrupt class, like decide to try to show the teacher who was boss and refuse to listen to instructions and follow along with the class and just generally being disruptive to a point where nothing was getting done. In other words wasting everyone else's time while the teacher had to stop the class to deal with the moron(s). I recall one incident in particular where this idiot was doing those exact things and I got so pissed I jumped up from my desk and went over to the assholes desk and lifted it up from the front and tipped him over backwards, sending him sprawling across the floor with his books and stuff, when he scranbled to get up I walked over and kicked him in the ass, knocking him down again and told him he better stay down because I was going to fuck him up. Everyone in class started cheering me and shouting at the asshole that he was a coward and was too chicken shit to get up. He stayed down until I walked away. He never disrupted that class again. We got sent to the office, he got a 3 day suspension, I got a warning. I was the new class hero, I had done what everyone else wished they could do, but didn't.

Sometimes, I wish I could throw rocks like I used to do. It made me feel good and alive. But I no longer have a penchant for being destructive so I don't think it would be as much fun as it was in those days. Although, sometimes it feels pretty good to build something first and then destroy it.

The Plans

2005-08-12T16:17:00.000-05:00

Me and the mystery lady have been working out our plans to meet face to face and it's looking like the big date will be Sept. 2nd. She will be flying in to New Orleans, where I will pick her up at the airport. And yes, we will be getting a room, LOL. She'll be able to visit for up to 4 days, maybe more and we've made some plans for sightseeing around the city, and maybe do some late night Bourbon St. fun. And, of course we have plans for satisfying our base sexual urges as well. I'm sure we'll be doing plenty of that! Hell yeah! Yes, I know, you'll all want pictures!! hehehe. Don't hold your breath!! Damn, now if I can just hold out that long, that's over 2 weeks away!!! As far as her identity goes, we're still discussing whether or not it's a good idea just yet, but you guys will be the first to know!!

The weather here has been a bit hot and humid with almost daily afternoon thunderstorms. It's also mosquito season. A really scary thing, the local health dept. came by and attached an official notification to everyones front doors saying that they have found encephalitis carrying mosquitos in our neighborhood! That's fucked up! You can't even walk out your front door without worrying about contracting some nasty ass brain swelling disease!! Who needs gun carrying terrorists when you have mosquitos that can kill you right on your freeking doorstep!! Anyway, they've been coming around almost daily with a truck to spray some kind of chemical into the air to kill the little blood suckers, if the mosquitos don't get your ass, maybe the chemical will! Mr Lee is a prophet!! hehehe

Spotted some unusual new birds in the backyard the other day and they've been coming back and scouring the area for food every day since, I'm not sure what the hell they are, maybe one of you guys might know.

They look pretty cool, with a long narrow beak that curves downward and they aren't very skittish either, I was able to get pretty close before they were alarmed enough to hustle off away from me. They didn't fly though.

The hawk has been coming around pretty regularly too and I'm beginning to wonder if it's scaring all the other birds away. The bird population in the yard at any given time has been pretty low lately, I think the hawk has been using the backyard as it's own personal hunting ground, LOL. Occasionally I've found small piles of feathers in the yard, bird feathers don't just fall out in a pile, they had to have been plucked out!

Finished up a way cool new template for Lady Myles over at Evil Torturing Angel, you guys have to check her out if you've never been over there, she writes some great stuff! Guaranteed to get the blood flowing too! Hell yeah! Tell her I sent ya and maybe she'll spank you personally!! hehe

The Call of the Wild!

2005-08-08T12:35:00.000-05:00

Life never ceases to amaze, just when you think that you've already explored so many possibilities in your life that you get tired of running down one way streets or turning into dead ends that suddenly, a new road or possibly a turnpike opens before you and all seems right with your own little world again. In my previous post I was really just being silly with my plea for salvation from my life of solitude and not actually imagining that anyone would take it seriously. Hell, most of you know me by now, I don't take much of anything seriously, I like to let things just sorta flow and go. I'm a pretty easy going and fairly simple guy. I don't need a whole lot to make me happy either, I can be satisfied reasonably easy as well.

One of you fine ladies out there that reads me has answered that crazy plea I made with a serious offer of fuck buddy goodness! How cool is that?!?! She's not new to me, we're old friends as far as bloggers go and we've flirted before in the past and actually touched on the subject in previous conversations a good while back. She saw my post and sent me a very cool email explaining her feelings, basically pouring her heart out to me and told me in not uncertain terms that she is looking for the same thing that I am! It's an offer that I simply cannot refuse! She is really cool and very attractive but she does live more than a couple hundred miles away. Not an insurmountable distance however, and we will be negotiating the logistics of meeting face to face in the coming days/weeks.

I know that you would love me to just blurt out her name but I can't, not without her permission and blessings of course. And, you know I'm not one to kiss and tell! Although, I have told many stories about my long past relationships, I certainly wouldn't give out the details of a current or recent affair. Besides, we have a lot of negotiating to do, hehe. This is as real as it gets! Hell yeah! Keep tha faith!!

I'm a Monk! Fuck Me!

2005-08-05T11:37:00.000-05:00

Occasionally I take stock of my life situation and right now I find myself to be too damn much like a freekin' monk. I spend long hours everyday writing, writing , and writing even more into the late hours of the evening. The only things missing are the robes, quill pen and candlelight. Not words but code, lots of html code, it does tend to get boring, and if it weren't for rocking out to my favorite metal stations on Winamp I swear I would go crazy doing this shit! I really have no life to speak of these days, I hope to some day have enough money to buy one. The thing I miss the most though is sex of course, I've said it before and I'll say it again. I'm one horny mofo!! The local dating scene is a wasteland of women that I cannot seem to find a common ground with, I seek but I cannot find what I'm looking for.

The women in my age range seem to have become too much like my mother, too sedate to be exciting and their interests clash with my own on a level that makes me feel like I'll never find anyone to truly love again. Demon Queen and I chilled our relationship a while back for a number of reasons, one being distance and others that I can't go into here, I miss her and I know she misses me. Maybe it can be patched again in the future, but that seems doubtful at this point in time, although we still care about each other. She really is cool and special and is a knockout in the looks department, woohoo!! Luv ya babe!! Anyway, I find myself to be a free man once again.

Ah, hell, maybe what I need is a good fuck buddy, I haven't had one in quite a few years and I miss it! Hear my plea! Any cool ladies looking for a hot, sexy and very discrete relationship and you live within a couple hundred miles of New Orleans, gimme a yell dammit! hehe. My email address is in the sidebar as always!! Stop laffin' dammit! I'm serious!! Saaaaaave me!!

My work shoes!! Flip-flops and Levi's!! Working at home has it's benefits!!

I've been busier than a watchdog in a fire hydrant factory and I bring for your viewing pleasure not one, not two, but FOUR new blog template creations!! The first one is at Victoria's Secrets, many of you know Vicki, one cool grrrl!! The next is Poker is War, a new blog written by Christel's husband, and is an anniversary gift from her to him! Cool huh? Next up is Jack written by a really nice lady that loves her pets very much! And finally, one that I finished just this morning, Chris and Her Crew!! I've just met her, she's from Wisconsin and she writes some fun stuff!!

It's Friday and I have nothing planned for this weekend, maybe I'll cruise thru the french quarter if the weather is nice, maybe go shoot some pictures, whatever!! Hope you guys have a solar powered weekend!!