A change

So, after some considerable thought I decided to start trying to carry a notebook.
Tom, if you’re reading this, get up off the floor.

Seriously, or as much as I get, the notebook has come from a need to remember things and having such an excitable imagination

I needed to get some of this down as I noticed I was forgetting things that part of me knew I wanted to remember.

So, follow along with me on my notebook journey:

Day 1
Decided to start carrying notebook.

Days 2-10
Research notebooks and Moleskine culture.
Read way too many hours on notebooks and on
Tom’s website (Hey, he is the only notebook
expert I know!) and assorted hacks. Note entry
on website about procrastination by reading
about notebooks and assorted hacks.
Research halted.

Day 11
Drive to Columbus, make side trip to Barnes
and Nobles for Moleskine . Spend 30 minutes
looking at them till I choose one.

Buy first notebook.

Day 12
Unwrap notebook and find suitable pen
(Pilot Varsity), a disposable fountain pen I
like. Chose this over many others that were
recommended on the basis of if I like to
write with it I would write more often.

Day 13
1300 hrs Go to store to find things
to hack notebook. Come home, unload jacket.

1310 hrs Go back 10 minutes later, find
notebook is missing. Panic. After high-speed
panic drive to store where I was looking for
rulers for notebook, search store and find no
trace of notebook. Leave phone number if
found, purchase off brand notebook in same size.

Must be willing to try to succeed.

1430hrs Take notebook home, unwrap and paste
business card inside cover. Write cell number
inside cover so if found they will call.
(Notice I never said that I put my name or
anything else in the Moleskine? Lesson one learned.)

Add penholder hack and added mod to hold
5-inch ruler on back page. Paste in 2 pages
of writers rule from famous authors to help
with writing. (Orwell, Heinlein, ECT)

Write first entry:
The only way a notebook is worth anything
is if you WRITE IN IT.

2330 hrs Go to kitchen to set up coffee
maker to automatically make coffee in morning.

2340 hrs Curse loudly as missing notebook
is found with pen lying on top of 1 pound coffee
can in plain view with pen.

0000 hrs Reveal stupidity to Judi

0010 hrs Laughter stops, sleep soon follows.

Day 14
1030 hrs Make first entry about weird dream.

1305 write blog entry

So, you can see that making the step to
carrying a notebook is sometimes a big one
and perhaps one take slowly. I am not sure
if this will work out for me, but I am
going to give it a try.

As a bookbinder you might wonder why I bought
my first (and hence second) notebooks.
Simple, before I invest my time to make one,
I wanted to make sure it was something that
I was going to use. I will personalize it
more as time goes on I am sure.

Till next time,
Be mindful and awake

Finaly!

Now, with the fall of the rat kingdom all other corporations shall bend to my will!!!

The beginning of the end! I WIN!

PS- Kate, I'll need to keep you on as a consultant since you are familiar with the ways of the rat but I reserve the right to take a flamethrower to the It's a small world ride...or at least make it into polka music.

Till next time,
Be mindful and awake

(Anyone know a good website for evil laugh development?)

From Judi's livejournal

Which creature of the night are you? Your Result: Werewolf   You are a vicious fighter and a vicious lover, absolutely dedicated to your pack. You are pushed to anger by disloyalty and injustice and have a tendency toward sudden, periodic bursts of wild behavior.
Vampire
Ghost
Demon
Sorceror
Cthulu Spawn
Incubus/Succubus
Which creature of the night are you? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

From Kari's Blog

Not often does a commentary have any impact on what I say or think but this guy brings forth some good points in a very clear and concise manner.

Take a few minutes and give him a listen.

Till next time,
Be mindful and awake.

Athens Pyramids, LLC

Athens Pyramids, LLC

5 Mill Street

Athens OH

You know it is not often I praise a local company but I felt it was time to speak my peace about one that I feel the need to share, Athens Pyramids. Most of us refer to it as "The Hookah Bar" and while that may seem to be a fairly generic term, here I think it is a compliment. There is no other in our minds but "THE Hookah Bar."

I find it a great hang out. It is until now our secret lair. Even in the evenings I am not frightened to take Judi there or to invite our friends to join us. There are few places of it’s like in our area.

First, let me comment on the décor. There is a theme if you look for it, but at the same time it has a relaxed feel you would expect from a campus gathering point. There is art on the walls and many times the walls themselves are art. It, unlike many local hang outs, evolves and becomes more than the sum total of its parts as you move through its colored halls. There is no alcohol served but there are drinks like Turkish coffee, regular coffee, pop, juices and waters. All served to you cold or hot as appropriate.

Now when I mentioned served let me speak for a few on the staff members. You will get to know them and enjoy them. They are people of intelligence that are genuinely concerned with your full enjoyment with your stay. Solly and Barry are quick to strike up a conversation or just to show you a new trick for a moment while checking on your needs. These two are sly and quick, but an experienced eye can tell when you are being stealth-helped. I myself like that as the barrier between "server" and "served" breaks down. When you walk through the doors you are greeted like you have just entered the den of a good friend’s house and are made to feel welcome every time you pass through the doors, to the point of being called by name.

The quality of the staff is right in line with the hookahs and the tobacco blends, all top quality. Everything is clean and well taken care of, with individually wrapped disposable mouthpieces for everyone. You can see the cleaning stations where everything is not only washed but also maintained to their standards which to say the least is high. If your unsure or just a beginner with Hookah culture the staff are more then willing to give you sage advice based on things to enjoy, not the bottom line of what needs to be pushed so the almighty dollar is earned. Everyone is willing to help or answer a question and I think in all my trips there I have yet to not see the staff smiling. It feels good to make people happy and they show it as well.

Keep Cheers, I’ll stick to Pyramids, where everybody knows your name.

Till next time,
Be mindful and awake

Thank you CNN

Sometimes they just post some of the greatest headlines:

"Bush lands in Texas; Residents urged to leave"

Sweet!!!!

Till next time,
Be mindful and awake

I have no clue why

But for some reason to me this is really funny...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBsxqQIu_5s

Must just be me I guess.....

Till next time,
Be mindful and awake

Holy Crap!

Has it been that long since an update?

Apparently it has!

So, needless to say I have been quite busy. I'll skip over the normal boring stuff about too much work blah blah blah. We all know the song and dance and I am sure we are just as sick of hearing about it.

So onto cool things:

I know how to SCUBA dive!

Yeper, done did it and me all certified and stuff. Not that I have been to any breathtaking depths (25 feet) or anything but still. There is a certain awesomeness in looking up and thinking "I have
2 stories of water over my head...Cool!!!" Part of the reasons I did this was having almost drowned as a small child I had "problems" with deep water. Weird for an ex-Navy guy hu? Anyway that and in my head this may be the closest I will ever get to a space walk in my lifetime. How could I pass that up? You do get the sensation of being in space and understand the hard to describe feelings that the astronauts use like the word 'awesome'. But somehow, it just does not fit the bill. I do not know if that is because we have worn out the awe that was once inspired by the word or if it is just that unable to describe the sensations. It comes very close to a sensory overload.

Well, with the classes out of the way perhaps I can get the writing mode a little more often.

So, till next time,
Be mindful and awake.

Quick note

Not dead, very busy. More later today I hope.

The people who wine about gas prices

You know I am sick of hearing about "Europe has been paying.."

We are not Europe. For their $8.00 a gallon they get good roads, free schooling, health care and a social benefits system that is the envy of the rest of the world. We don't. We have fat executives
who can get away with gouging the American public because the majority of it has the "Oh well" attitude. They say there is a war on, but it seems people forgot what they did to war profiteers
during the Second World War. Someone needs to read a book!

Don't like it? Do something about it. Call your lawmakers and make them do their jobs or vote in those who will, not more of the same oil families who have been in there and benefit by the establishment of an economic serf class.

Buy a gun, it scares the shit out of them.

Till next time,
Be mindful and awake

Yes, it has been a while since an update

There are several good reasons but most of them are not worth going into here. Let me just say that of all the things I have been writing about of late it has either been fiction or if it was a post I thought it was going to be too bitchy.

I feel that ever few posts I need to throw something bright and shiny, a unicorn moment if you will where all the shit storm if suddenly ablated by the appearance of a unicorn with rainbows and sparkles and glitter.

Too bad that shit doesn't happen all the time. Here comes another one of those bitch posts. It was triggered by something most unlikely: Pickles.

Yes, I said pickles. You see I have been of late trying to cut down on the amount of corn syrup that I have been eating. I think it causes a lot of the health problems we see now days. Our bodies cannot deal with all that much sugar and you would be surprised where you find it. Sure, I mean you can assume some carbonated drinks, candy and cereals. But it is in places you may never believe, like pickles. Yea, I was shocked too. Well, when it came to the sweet pickles I was not too shocked because they are labeled sweet. The problem was after almost 25 minutes of reading labels I only found one type of pickles that did not have corn syrup in it. What the hell! This stuff is in everything!
Check these out:
http://tinyurl.com/ajlzg
http://tinyurl.com/2dczjf
(did the tinyurl thing since they were so long)

Arrrgh, I just wanted a pickle! Bastards!

Till next time,
Be mindful and awake

Beef Recall

Yep , yet another but buried in the list is something I just had to chuckle about:

From CNN Via TinyURL:http://tinyurl.com/2ubwxg

"Various weight boxes of HALLMARK MEAT PACKING BEEF LIPS."

Beef lips...the Xmas gift that keeps on giving.

Perhaps Mother was right.
(See if you can figure that reference out. And no Judi you can't post an answer)

Till next time,
Be mindful and awake

Warning:Contains Vulgar Language

It is not often I give this warning but here it is. I kinda blew my top on something but I think I get my point across.

If you are offended by vulgarity then this post will really piss you off.

So I am watching this news clip about cloned vehicles.

No kidding they said cloned vehicles. Seems that smugglers have caught on to the idea of making average trucks and vans look like something else. A standard Econoline van suddenly becomes a FedEx truck with a little graphics. Say it isn't so! Not like they used milk trucks during prohibition to smuggle booze around. But wait, there is a new twist. That is right, and I quote "They could be used by terrorists in a terror attack". No shit Sherlock. Like there are a lot of Terrorist cells out delivering baked goods. I lost count how many times they said terrorist and terror in a little 3 minute segment. Talk about feeding the culture of fear.

Come on people! I remember when people stood up for themselves and were not just victims. The media always like to throw up 9/11 in our faces and talk about the terrible tragedy of the towers. Yes it was horrible. Yes it was a senseless loss of life, but let us please drop it! Can you not see that this fear mongering is what keeps people huddled in their homes afraid of a small group of people that may or may not do something?

What happened to the country that would happily run up and kick a Nazi right square in the soft bits? Where did the Cold Warriors go? We would have said "Alright Mother-fucker, bring it on!" not "Oh please Mister Bureaucrat, save me from the invisible evil that may or may not be there." Grow a pair people. We were willing to go and fight 13 million Germans in WW2. Yet we are scared to death of a few hundred terrorists? Why? Have we become so complacent in our air conditioned, germ free environments that we cannot even take a problem head on without 54 committees, 500 new laws and therapy for everyone involved? Have we lost the spirit that caused us to tame the west and go to the moon? Are we nothing more than just shells of what was once a great country of freedom loving people. We have become subjects. We are being ruled by fear and those in power who wish to keep us afraid to stay in power. We even have a secret police that answers to no one and operates on lists of people who are suspected of crimes they may or may not have comitted. Hello?? We have secret prisons, no habeas corpus any more, fewer rights and even fewer options. Is this not what we were fightin against in the whole WW2 thing?

Terrorist are nothing new, our country was founded by them. Remember that.
Sorry Mister Jefferson, I just don't think they get it anymore.

Till next time,
Be mindful and awake