IF THERE WAS EVER ANY QUESTION

Check this local headline...:

It's OK to drink alcohol in a Travis County park just as long as it doesn't look like that's what you're doing.Travis county shows it's ass

I grew up here...I have consumed alcoholic beverages in Travis county parks for as long as I can remember. Never once has the sight of a beer can enamored me to the point of commiting a crime, but I have engaged in some onerous malfeasance much to my glee after consuming the contents of said cans.

Now I have to pour my beer in a cup when I go to a county park...somehow that will fight crime.
Idiots.

HEY BABY...IT'S THE 4TH OF JULYYYYYY!

Ann's job affords us precious little time together, and most of that is spent resting up for the next day or the new week. I'm off the 3rd and the 4th, giving me a 4 day weekend. In her team meeting today, Ann managed to wrangle those days off as well!!! I'm looking forward to that time together with no interruptions.
There's one small detail...my evaluation at the hall is scheduled for saturday the first...oops. I am rescheduling that tomorrow, it's been a long time since we had that much time off together and I'm not gonna miss any of it.
Other than that, work is work, the dogs are a pain in the ass as usual, but we would'nt change that for anything (having dogs, not the pain in the ass...we endure that).
We got spend the afternoon on sunday with the kids and the grandkid. Sean is awesome...and almost a year old. Kyle cooked lunch for us at the restaurant he works at. It was very good, he may have found his calling.
I am almost overwhelmed by the GOP shit show...it just gets deeper and deeper, but I'll save that for another time.

FRIDAY'S FUNNY

Enjoy....
Ever divulge more than you should to coworker's?

AND THE WORLD IS FLAT

As the war rages on and the mid term elections approach, the GOP trots out the following:
An amendment to ban flag burning. This is the water spraying lapel flower of issues, tired and true, I remember this being an issue from my teens. I would never burn our flag, but if you need to burn it to make a point, go for it. It's yours...you paid for it.
People tend to confuse current events with history. Remember WWII? We did that one right. And how about Korea? Ike got us out of that one with not so much egg on our face. Then we got the Vietnam...and we all know about the nam...peace wiith honor. OK. Then there was the all important invasion of Grenada(???)
Then there was Kosovo...but that was more of a support intervention.
Somalia...there's something to be proud of.
Desert storm = Dry hump.
The GOP has gradually eroded our honor in war to war for power and money.
And here we are..."operation iraqi freedom".
Is Iraq free yet? No.
The GOP is pushing flag burning, gay marriage and any number of hot point bullshit iissues to mobiliize the base...a base of like minded idiots who can't see past the dollar signs and the heartless icon that has (sadly) come to represent america.
And to you I say...
WTF!!! Have we become a nation of tards???
Aparrently we have.
And the world is fucking flat.
How much sense does that make?

A little slice of heaven
It was supposed to be my day off, but I had to go into the office at 8 AM to take care of a few things that I couldn't finish up last night on my shift. I had thought I'd get out of there after just an hour or two, but circumstances caused me to have to wait an extra hour for something to get done before I could finish up my end of the tasks. I had plenty of other work-related things to do but since it was supposed to be my day off I decided instead to wander down to the nail place and inquire about a pedicure. I've never had one and I was reluctant since my feet are a mess with heavy callouses from 45 years of going barefoot every chance I get, not to mention the broken, misshapen toenails. But she didn't bat an eye when I embarrassingly showed her my feet. And I gotta tell ya, the massage chair and whirlpool foot bath would have been heaven enough, but throw in the foot and leg massage plus the miracle of walking out of there with pretty painted toenails (a first for me) and I'm hooked. Pedicures are most definitely getting added to the monthly budget.

JUST LIKE THEY SAID

We took out zar-cow-eee. Al Queda said just you wait and see. And look what's happened. They snatched 2 of our own off the streets and did terrible things to them.In my memory, thiis is the first time something like this has happened. If you believe BartCop, they were beheaded...everythiing I've read just says they were "desecrated" and tortured in that sanctioned islamic jihad sort of way.
Great.
This is going just like we planned it. Right?
I watched the footage of Berg getting his head removed from his body in front of god and everybody, it was all over the place on the web and the blog-o-sphere...you had to see it. right?Portal of Evil TV? You Tube? Did you see it?Did it bring a tear to your eye? There's just something so viseral in watching some rag head son of a bitch cut off the head of a fellow american in realtime that wakes up the heart in me.
It makes me want to kill.
These two soldiers were "desecrated" according to islamic law.
Wow....
Motherfuckers.

I liked my coffee black
I've been an avid coffee drinker for about 25 years with a daily consumption that used to be around 12 cups before I cut it down to 8 cups a day. I haven't had any coffee since Wednesday and I've had one hell of a headache in addition to being grumpy and foggy-headed. I know this is going to pass and I'll feel better than ever down the road, but in the meantime it's pretty rough going. I remember reading somewhere that caffeine withdrawal lasts about three days, but I suspect it's going to be a long time before I stop jonesing for coffee. I spent my workday across the hall from a coffee shop that makes wonderful coffee and I swear I could smell the aroma wafting in all day long. I held firm and drank my sparkling water instead, but will I make it a week, a month, a year? Is there a coffee addicts anonymous?

DECAY...IT'S ALL AROUND US

Todays comic offering:

ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FUCKING MIND???

I cannot believe this shit...seriously. Amnesty for asshat's that have been puttin' the hurt on us to the tune of 2500 dead and 20,000 wounded??? Not to mention the civilian casualties and beheadings! I like this plan...announce an amnesty, and those stupid enough to show up...mow them down with 50 cal. machine guns. that's amnesty. Jeez...The GOP using the war to suck the ass of the already inflamed right. It won't solve any of the problems over there, but it will undoubtedly mobilize the neo con zombie voting public.
On a lighter note...the supreme court ruled today that police no longer have to knock first before serving a warrant, Alito being the tie breaker...big surprise there, right? They can just knock down your door and come on in. How big does the red flag have to get before people do something ???
My response to this ruling is as follows:
If you kick down my front door and come into my home, you better be wearing a badge as big as Flava-Flav's fucking clock or I'm gonna shoot you where you stand. If you want to violate my civil rights, at least be polite about it...Knock, I'll answer. Show me the warrant, let me read it...if it's legit, come on in. If it's not, you're gonna need some back up.

CAN YOU HOOK A BROTHA UP?

EASTER V.3

enjoy....

IT'S A BYRD BYRD BYRD- A TOODY BYRD!!!!

OOM-PAPPA-MAO-MAO-MAO-A-MAO-MAO-MAO!!!

I ditched my email a week or so ago because I made the mistake of registering at newgrounds and opened myself up to a veritable shitload of spam that even Gmail can't stop. Fuck you very much newgrounds. Anyway...I checked my email today and I had one from a special projects manager at an alternative school program here in Texas (and beyond?) who read my entry about Toody and passed it on to her, along with an invite to speak at a conference. Toody wanted to hear from me and Layla passed on her number.
Readers of this blog will know that Toody was my counselor in jr. high and high school and she is referenced frequently here at depthmarker.
I spent about an hour on the phone with her tonight, she's busy with speaking engagements in june, but plans are in the works for a reunion of our group from high school in July. We caught up some...basic stuff, shit, we got almost 30 years to account for!
I could blather on and on about this, but let me just say this...The restorative powers of a chat with Toody are amazing! My smile is hurting my face.

THAT SEEMS A BIT LOW

Nicked from BW...

You Are 68% Cynical

You're a full blown cynic... and probably even skeptical of these results. You have your optimistic moments, but most likely you keep them to yourself.

How Cynical Are You?

SO I NOTICED THIS STICKY STUFF ON MY CHANNEL LOCKS TODAY

I was running some conduit for some switches in the ceiling of this media lab today...it's a spline ceiling, the simple explaination is spline ceilings suck. There's flex conduit running every which way for the lighting and fire alarm conduit and sprinkler pipes and power pipes running everywhere. It's a mess. But I figure out a path...I'm doing this on my own in practice for my evaluation...this is a three way switching scenario...part of the evaluation coming up on July first.
Anyway...my hand goes sticky on my channel locks, I look in the semi darkness of being up in a ceiling and it looks like blood. I look at my left hand and yep...it's covered in blood but there is no injury.
I get down off the ladder and head to the bathroom when I notice my right index finger is bleeding...how the fuck did this happen? Two new cuts on my finger...dammit! And I'm transported back to a time when a journeyman told me he collected scars in response to my tattoos. I think I'm in his school now.
I'm slow, I'm shakey, I may be bloody sometimes, but I know what I'm doing.
I leave you with this...I had to stop and shoot it...awesome...





Nice...huh?

RACE RELATIONS

ISSAC (FROM THE LOVE BOAT)

POLITICS

JOMENTUM

I WISH I HAD ME SOME O' THEM "CONSTITUTIONAL POWERS"

Rep. William Jefferson has so far refused to step down in regard to him being the focus of a federal bribery investigation. Well...bully for him. Let's review the facts for a moment. The FBI has a video tape of him accepting a bribe of 100,000 dollars. Oh, wait...I forgot to say alledgedly...there, I said it. When they searched his house they found 90,000 dollars hidden in his freezer wrapped in foil...why? maybe the man likes cold hard cash...I don't know. Two people (one employee) have been convicted and sentenced on charges of bribery. Coincidence? Maybe.
Nobody in (white) Washington DC was saying anything that barely registered on the radar until they searched ( characterized as a raid) his congressional office...then all of a sudden it's a shit storm of politicians screaming out of bounds. How dare they search my office??? The supreme leader Bunnypants felt compelled to freeze the evidence seized until the issue was sorted out.Here's an excerpt from the article...
FBI agents carried out a weekend search of Jefferson's congressional office last month, triggering an outpouring of criticism from congressional leaders claiming they had encroached on Congress' constitutional powers.
I wish I had me some o' them constitutional powers.
Further complicating this issue is the fact that Jefferson is a democrat. He's fodder for the GOP to use in the mid terms to mitigate the soulless corruption that defines the GOP and everything they've perpetrated on us since the giggling murder monkey was placed in power so long ago.
This case is a lead pipe cinch in my opinion and the dude needs to step the fuck down, not because he's fodder to undermine the dems in the midterms, but because it appears he's a fucking criminal just like the GOP from the top down. We need to scrub the entire thing by the way...if you think Jefferson is the only dem who is corrupt you are either blind, retarded or both. The entire system is corrupt as are the alternatives currently offered...I don't care if you're green, independent or a sock puppet, if you have dealings in american politics you have done something shady...it's a given, and don't try to pretend you haven't because you have. You all suck.
So...let's get back to this search of his office for a minute. It's OK for a variety of gov't. agencies to tap my phone, track my internet and search my house when I'm at work without my knowledge but a congressmen's office is somehow sacred ground? Somebody said once that a fish rots from the head down, and history tells us that some of the crookedest motherfuckers in history ever were people in power.
It's simple math.

Here is the GOP plan equation style:

War on terror+Iraq x Afghanistan (- Afghanistan) +corruption- accountability/oversight + Fema- death toll < Gay marriage + Flag burning / the death tax = FOCUS ON THE FAGS AND THE FLAG & $$$. = Energizing the sheep to get out and vote against a godless fag loving flag burning death tax avoiding bunch of infidels.
(It shames me to admit that this kind of shit works on people that live on the same continent as I do)

The dems equation is equally flawed and weak...the only difference I see is there are more GOP sheep that will resonate with the propaganda and actually get off thier lazy asses and vote against the tax evading, flag burning, homosexual agenda than there are dems who will get off thier lazy asses to buy a latte. The dem equation looks something like this:

2 + 2 = 5...right? it's 5 right? Well, if it's not 5 what is it then?
Like I said.

IT'S HUMP DAY....SPEAKING OF HUMPS

ANN COULTER
Enjoy...

Weekend laziness & dress code thoughts
I snagged a weekend off and I have a long list of projects to do as well as the necessary housework stuff, but I've spent the day sitting at the computer in my pajamas instead. I spent about 6 hours on work-related stuff, but it was things I wanted to do (as opposed to things I need to do) so that doesn't really count as work. The stress from the job comes and goes, but I suspect 80% of it is just because I'm new at this particular job description and have unrealistic expectations of what I ought to be able to do right off the bat. An interesting twist in the workplace (and one I can talk about) is the changes to the dress code. No jeans has always been the rule, but it's been extended to no "jeans-like" pants and now shirts must be tucked-in. That's all fine and good if you are skinny, but I'm fat and tucking in a shirt is something I refuse to do until I lose about 80 more pounds. So the first day I'm at the office following the new dress code, I'm in a casual skirt set with sensible pumps and damned if I don't I get asked if I was off at a job interview before I came in. I had to laugh because what I was wearing was far too casual for a job interview. Truth be told, I don't mind wearing skirts except that they usually have no pockets and it's a bit awkward when I have to crawl under a desk to plug in my laptop. Oh, and the fact that my chair tends to roll over them. No, it's mostly the shoes that drive me nuts since there's always a "no sandals" rule and this place is no exception. My toes like to have lots of room and woman's closed toe dress shoes always seem intent on cramming the toes together as much as possible. I'm sure I'll come up with an acceptable wardrobe that's also comfortable, but that requires shopping which I absolutely hate to do. That said, some of the guys have had it a lot harder than me since there's also new "no hat" rule. Since Rob's a hat wearer, I've seen the distress that occurs when a suitable hat cannot be found so I can well imagine the effect of being forbidden to wear a hat at all. After all, this is Austin, Texas and a gimmie hat is almost required wearing for guys around here. Ah well, it's not like tech support can't be outsourced overseas for 1/10 the price and if keeping the business here requires a bit more "professional" attire, I suppose that's a small price to pay.

AN INTERESTING COUPLE OF DAYS

Me and my friend were on our way to his court ordered drunky class yesterday, it was friend and / or family night, a kind of show and tell. I went with because he's mah friend and all that.
I felt like I was in a staff development class back when I worked at the Oaks treatment center, but really..back in the day...that day, back in 1986. The instructor even showed a video from 86 about addiction and codependence. Flash-fucking-back. It was amusing to see the same propaganda employed after all these years.
As I posted earlier, I have this electricians evaluation looming on the horizon. As with any organization, there are many versions of the truth about shit like this, so when I went and paid my dues I met with the person in charge of the program I'm in and got the union version of this evaluation. I say union version vs. union member version because, like any business versions vary.
Anyhoo...out of the seven catagories, there are three that I could usesome practice time on...stuff I've only done a few times in two years and stuff I haven't the slightest clue about. This being a one time skills assessment, I want to do well. So I rescheduled for the first saturday in July to do it. If I do well, I could get a substantial raise. That's a double edged sword because that raise could get me reassigned. I could end up drivin' a shovel in a ditch at some other job site. The quality of training I've gotten comfortable with at my current job would be over...I could end up surrounded by typical texas redneck electricians who believe in a different kind of training. One that involves humiliation and abuse. That would never work for me, I would kick thier asses.
Horns of a dilemma...more money vs. quality of training...meh...we need the money.
But enough about work.
Except to say that Ann had a rough day at her work today, I could hear it in her voice when she called me after her shift. I suggested dinner out and we ended up at a tex mex place we go to sometimes (La Feria) ...they have a mariachi band on Thursday nights that go from table to table playing songs. Which is why we don't go there on Thursdays as a rule, but the memorial day holiday on monday threw my schedule off and there we were listening to mariachi music.
At first it was annoying...we couldn't have a conversation, but after a few songs the musicians in us realized how tight they were. They were good. When they got around to our table I asked if they knew any Black Flag? No...How about some Zeppelin? No...Any blues? No...They could play something slow if we wanted. Then the horn player suggested some Cash.
OK.I'll quit fuckin' with you if you play some Cash. We were then treated to a most amazing version of Ring of Fire.It was awesome! We went from the mexican hat dance to crass americana. It was cool.
After dinner we went to waterloo and I got a CD by locals The Black Angels and Ann got the new James McMurtry ( also a local ). The original mission was to get a dvd called winter soldier...a 1970's documentary about atrocities in vietnam as recounted by the soldiers that perpetrated them. Ann found itonline when we got home and it was ordered along with another one called The year of the pig...also about the VN war. So I will be watching the mailbox for awhile...Cause you know I love that VN documentary stuff. C'mon Amazon...hurry.
I think by the time we got home Ann's spirits were lifted some. The Black Angels CD is very good and James proves once again that he is an amazing lyricist.
Everyone's at least grinning. There's more but I'll save it for another day.