[F]unemployment Photos

So I took the day off during the week before the 4th and headed down to Mission Beach to check out the rides and take photos. You may click on any of them to see a larger version in a new window.
The weather was warm, changing back and forth from gray to clear the whole time as is usually the case along the coast.
I also made time to get a burger and a glass of beer which really only makes the most sense. I also learned a hell of a good recipe from the bartender for a bloody mary that I'll have to try.
Here we see the Chaos ride at Belmont. No, I did NOT get on that thing.
I'm fine with roller coasters and what have you, but these contraptions that spin like that.. no thanks. Breakfast on me! And you sitting next to me.




Mission Beach is an interesting part of the city.
It's very popular with the tourists because it's a huge beach, there's Belmont Park and the long, long promenade(?) that runs the entire length of the beach for walking, bike riding, skateboarding, etc..
For some reason, it also seems to draw a fair amount of losers and tough guys with other assorted weirdos and nutcases. No idea why.. Meth-heads and Raider fans. That's one way to look at it.
Ocean Beach is meth-heads and smelly hippies. I'll take that over the other if I have to choose.
But check out the hibiscus painting on the electric thingie. That's pretty cool.


I hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend.
We bbq'd, went to a party, had some family over and just relaxed for the most part.
I also spent a couple of days trying to wrap my brain around the idea that poor Sarah Palin won't be around to kick around anymore. Oh, the horror.
Did anyone read the transcript from her rambling resignation? I'm still trying to figure out what the hell she was going on about. That was very bizarre.





One more photo to close it out. You can see them all here should you like to have a look.
Note, these are not real California license plates. Real ones are made in prison and are boring.
They should come up with a new design. We've had those old white plates for a really long time now, time for something new.

Enjoy the week, get some summer sun.

Hanging with the dogs

Well, this continues to be an interesting time for me. This whole out of work thing. This look on Poppy's face is pretty rad. That's what you feel like right after getting shitcanned. Ha!
Maybe I'm going about it the wrong way. The LA Times had a story about people enjoying their "funemployment". I wish I could take it that way the whole time. But as my wife will attest, I'm not really stressed or anything, it's just sort of a bummer sometimes. Hell, even when I went to the beach to read and take some pictures on the 3rd, it fucking rained! :) We don't get rain in San Diego between April and Nov for Crissakes. Thunder and lightening, too. Crazy.

The 4 of us chill around the house a lot. When you talk to the dogs, they don't talk back. If they do, I'm fucking out of here.
They like having people around, though sometimes I wonder why because we're always telling them what to do, or what not to do. At the moment, it's please don't chase the disease-infested possums that have been skulking around the yard the last week or so. Or eat the babies.
Note, if there is an animal that is NOT a cute baby, it's a fucking possum. Also, they do in fact play dead. Otis pulled one out of the bushes the other day and dropped it in the grass. Looked dead as a doornail. Ten minutes later the little shit was gone. Non-city people can laugh, but how the hell am I supposed to know!

If all the resumes that I have sent out were paper instead of electronic, I'd have to buy carbon footprint something or others. Whatever that's called.

My mom and stepdad came down last month and we painted the exterior of the house. In four days! Not bad from start to finish with all that prepping and stuff. All of us were really sore by the end, I'm sure. But the house looks a lot better now, and that was really awesome they helped us get done what we have wanted to do since like the day we moved in here Aug of '02.
Procrastination is pretty nice. Should you like to see a start to finish photo montage taken right after we began prep following the powerwash, check this out. All those are thumbsnail jpegs that get bigger if you click on them.

My goal between now and when I find a job shall be more funemployment, less time being bummed out. But I have promised my wife that I shall keep the house spotless during the week, so I have to time my fun properly. I'll shoot for spotless. We have 3 dogs that shed all day every day, what the hell can I do??
Peace.

Hey, who knew SNL was still funny?

Goes down as a classic for sure:

Just trying to lay low, man

So when I got up this morning, it marked the third Weds in a row that I awoke without a job.

I was laid off on Tues March 31st (with a shitload of other people) in what was a very surreal morning in which I was at my desk around 6am and home about 9am or so wondering "WTF?" while I stared at a box of crap that I packed up from my desk. Not much. A piggy bank, picture of my wife and me having pizza in Brooklyn, a CD or two and my headphones. Oh, this is the funny part, my framed milestone certificate that I got last year for my 5 years of service.

So I joined the masses (literally) around the country now looking for work. In one respect, I should be grateful: My wife is still gainfully employed and I have a severance. There are a lot of people worse off than me.
But it's an odd thing being a grown man with a mortgage and all that to be sent home packing after getting up before the sun pretty much every day - other than vacation time - to all of a sudden be here at home.

The first week I was a fucking machine. I cleaned, painted and worked in the yard and cooked like a mad man. Walls, door trim, replaced knobs, new vegetables in the ground, roses clipped, grass mowed, dog shit picked up in a super-timely fashion. Like a fucking whirlwind, man.
Week two, eh. Some things here and there, picking up, touching up some paint again.
Last week I was a little more bummed out, though I had a good meeting with a recruiter that cold-called me.

I'm trying to do the usual thing "make it a job to look for a job" like everyone says. So I don't sleep too late. But I don't get up before dawn like I did before. And I surf the job boards and updated my resume post haste.
My wife has been very supportive and we could live a much lower standard of living off what she makes, but still.. I'm very thankful for her.

I've never NOT worked for 25 fucking years, now.
I got my first job right after high school was over for me in 1984 and have always worked. It has a bizarre feeling. I'm not like Kramer on Seinfeld. I doubt good fortune would just drop in my lap without ever having to work for a living.. :)
And I'm also not like a couple losers I have known over the years that somehow just sort of squeak by without ever having to really do anything. Of course, one of them was in his 40's and lived rent free with mommy and was a little nuts, so there is that..

Here's to all the job-hunters. May your paychecks start again soon and Dilbert cartoons come to life right there in your office.
Peace.

Best persons in the world. Roger Ebert edition. Special Bill O the Clown content

Make sure you read Roger's great article from the 7th here.

And now, the best people in the world:

2009: Scary, but good year so far

Been a while since I have taken the time to sit down and write anything of substance on my blog. Although I'm sure there are detractors that would say nothing has been of substance. Though any detractor of mine probably has more free time on their hands than I may have..
It's scary living in a recession. This is the first time in my life that I am living within a full-blown long recession as an adult 100 percent on my own (married, though). The first started in '73 when Nixon was Prez, but I was just 7 that year. The next in the 80's I was a teenager, the next was small in the early 90's and the next in 2001 was small after the "dot com" bust.
I'm still working as is my wife. I hope that doesn't change, and I hope that does not change for you.
Having new leadership in Washington at this moment does make a difference to me now. Long readers of my blog and those that know me understand my feelings for the previous administration and their reckless behavior on both the domestic and the international fronts. Hell, I STILL cringe when I turn on the tube and hear a reporter say, "the president noted today that... " my first instinct, is still to say, "that fucking asshole Bush, I don't care what he says!" Oh, right. He's gone, now.
Obama was not my first choice for President out of the pack that ran, I was a Kucinich man, but you can't have everything.
There are things I wish he was doing different, but I feel that his overall ideas and the change of investing more in the rebuilding of the nation and the middle class can and will work if done right.
I don't have a problem with a class war. I think it's healthy, as a matter of fact. The very wealthy have pretty strong voices working on their behalf. No reason for everyone else to not work to change the direction. In the last decade, productivity was up, CEO salaries are up and so were profits. But jobs were shipped overseas and salaries for working people were flat or down. fighting for change against that tide is a good thing.

As we move on past the horrible last 8 years, it would be easy to forget and move on, and I agree in a sense. But certain actions of the BushCheny regime MUST be investigated and punished if necessary. If you haven't already read the NY Times article about the new info on the "torture memos", I encourage you to do so. I'm sickened that John Yoo is a tenured law professor in the University of California system at Berkeley. Let's hope those that went too far get theirs some day. I won't hold my breath, but I'll wish for it anyhow..

Some people think I voted for a "socialist" last November. Most of them couldn't define the word on their best day, of course.
I don't believe that, but I do believe in government working towards making this nation a better one for all of us, in regulation of the private sector, national parks, good roads, lot of well-paid public safefy officers and healthcare for all. That's not socialism. That's a place I want to live.

I haven't posted much in the last little while maybe because I got what I wanted and took a break. But I have not taken a break from staying informed and making sure those that I elected into office are doing what I want. I suggest you do the same.
There's a better day ahead. Even the chairman of the Fed says so. :)
Peace, more in the coming weeks.
And now, a shameless happy dog photo.

Vote for Poppy!

Condolences, your revolution is over!

Heck of a first week for the new Prez!

Wow, this guy gets right down to work.
And in a positive way.
Can you even believe that we had that idiot Bush for 8 years??
Ah, it's now just a fading memory.

Great work this first week Mr. Prez. Keep it up.

President Obama

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Happy post

So that was my rant below.
As for a non-rant, I thoroughly enjoyed the big hokey concert from DC yesterday.
I know it was a bit goofy at times, and other times confusing (George Lopez?), but people sure looked happy as hell to be celebrating out there on the river under Lincoln's gaze.
Which is damn cool..
And you'd have to be completely heartless to not enjoy Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen singing that silly old Woody Guthrie tune.
Looking forward to tomorrow when we can start trying to move forward.

Religious cults

So last night (Jan 18th 2009) we were watching this show on the National Geographic Channel about this cult in New Mexico led by a now convicted perv.
One wonders how exactly a person would get involved with something like this, living out in the middle of nowhere, listening to some nut who tells you he's the Messiah.
Note, I didn't say some nut who THINKS he's the Messiah, because I'm sure he's just a huckster. Because when a guy says, "you need to lay down here naked with God. And by God, I mean my penis" (I made up the last part of the quote, can you tell?) I have a feeling that he's not really the Messiah.

I guess in real life (whatever that is) we do have to abdicate a little bit of ourselves in order to get along or just have a roof over our heads. The bank holds the title to your house, but you don't have to offer up your wife or daughter to the loan officer just for the privilege of having a mortgage.. And in the big picture, I suppose living out in the sticks with no responsibilities other than planting trees and growing tomatoes has a certain lure. Until the "Messiah" makes you un-clog his toilet or something.

But it got me thinking, how the hell are these nuts any worse than any other organized religion? The big ones just happen to maybe be on TV and have better lawyers.
I have the same contempt for all of these modern Elmer Gantry-types. How many times have we seen some perv with a Brioni suit say that God told him via his dick that he needs to have sex with - insert abused parishioner here - in order for all to be right in the world??

Which brings me to the Obama inauguration.
I voted for the guy for obvious reasons, not the least of which because McCain is crazy and his running-mate was a fucking moron. I'm happy about the win and everything and overall think it's pretty awesome.
But how he went about choosing that crazy asshole from that Orange County Brokeback Church or whatever to give the big inauguration prayer is beyond me.
This guy is everything that is wrong with this country and with religion all rolled up into one. He's a fucking charlatan and a joke. It's kind of embarrassing.
We've had enough embarrassment in the last 8 years, we don't need anymore.

Can we keep the religious crazies at bay for just a little while, please??

Even Dr. Seuss hates Bush

Yea, I voted for him. You betcha.

Vacation photo blogging: Amsterdam

Best video ever. Watch the whole thing

America says no to Joe and Sarah

I'm not one to rub faces into it (ok, I am sometimes) but this is an exception.
The historic election of Nov 2008 was not a repudiation of republicans, or of conservatism (whatever that is) or even of John McCain.
In a sense, it was a rejection of Joe The Plumber and Sarah Palin. And regressives in general.
When McCain decided to hitch his wagon to these two, it was doomed from that point on.
Joe the fucking plumber? This arrogant, angry, ignorant fucking dipshit? A guy who is mad at Obama for possibly taxing some hypothetical income in his never-to-come-true future?
America took one look at this guy whom McCain called a "roll model" and collectively shook their heads.

And Sarah Palin. Caribou Barbie. Florence Gump. She's cunning, no doubt. But she is as stupid as the day is fucking long. 5 times and she still can't get it right what the Veep does according to the Constitution?
The press calling her out is like taking away her First Amendment rights? OK.
I hope this Alaskan hillbilly had a good taste of some good taste. 'Cause America don't like losers. Like the great philosopher Dandy Don Merideth used to say "turn out the lights, the party's over."
I suggest that you regressives that got a boner over her go out and buy a copy of Nailin' Palin. There were no press "gotchas" with this idiot. She's just an idiot.

No doubt that we've come a long way as a country and it was an amazing night to see our first black man get elected president. But people can also "do the math" as they say.
4 more (or more) years of regressive, neoliberal/neoconservative rule was not in the cards. We all said it's time to move on to something else and swing that pendulum the other way for once in 40 years.
Let's go about moving things in a better direction.

Bring it on Home, baby.

Get the latest news satire and funny videos at 236.com.

LANDSLIDE!!

LANDSLIDE!!!

All I can say is this is one of the greatest nights in the history of this great nation.

Peace,
Mike

Make sure you

VOTE!!!

They prove they will try and take your vote in order to win

Below, as reported by the LA Times this morning (read the whole story) is a snapshot of the legal battles in several "battleground" states.
What it shows is that the modern Republican party wants to win by stealing votes, or by keeping people from not voting.
I guess if they succeed, it's technically winning. If by winning you mean hating America and her citizens, then let that be their label.
Because the tactics being used by them are nothing short of hateful and wrong.
There were even reports in some states that they wanted to try and challenge voters that have had their homes recently foreclosed on the technical grounds that their address as of now does not match. Imagine that. That is how much they hate America.
The McSame smear campaign can try and make it sound like a couple idiots buying packs of smokes for homeless guys is some giant democrat conspiracy, but sorry. Fighting to keep valid voters off the rolls by the hundreds of thousands if not millions is just a little bit more important.

As reported:



COLORADO
Voting rights groups sued, asking a federal judge to reinstate 30,000 names purged from the state registry in what they argue was a violation of federal law prohibiting removals within 90 days of a federal election. In a compromise, those stricken will be allowed to cast provisional ballots.

FLORIDA
Voter advocacy groups sued last year to challenge a "no match, no vote" law, but failed to revoke it. About 10,000 voters remain on a list flagging them for identity checks on or before election day. The state is also one of five against which the Justice Department has filed complaints alleging misconduct related to minority voting.

GEORGIA
A three-judge federal panel ruled that election officials needed Justice Department approval to check voters' immigration status. The ruling didn't make clear, though, whether the checks must cease.

INDIANA
A Republican Party lawsuit alleging registration fraud seeks to shut down early voting in four counties.

MICHIGAN
A federal judge struck down the state's voter removal program and ordered election officials to cease purging names from the rolls when their voter identification cards were returned by the Postal Service as undeliverable.

MISSISSIPPI
A Justice Department complaint alleges misconduct related to minority voting.

MONTANA
After the state Democratic Party sued to halt challenges to the eligibility of 6,000 registered voters, a federal judge deemed the challenges frivolous.

NEW JERSEY
A Justice Department complaint alleges misconduct related to minority voting.

OHIO
State Republican Party leaders are negotiating with election officials to resolve a dispute over what to do about more than 200,000 voters whose registration data don't match other records. The U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled against efforts to strike the names from voter rolls, but the issue was raised again in state courts.

PENNSYLVANIA
Civil rights groups filed suit asking a federal court to order election officials to have on hand emergency paper ballots on election day in the event that a majority of voting machines become inoperable amid record turnout.

SOUTH CAROLINA
A Justice Department complaint alleges misconduct related to minority voting.

TENNESSEE
Justice Department complaints allege misconduct related to minority voting and disenfranchisement of overseas military voters.

VIRGINIA
The NAACP sued Gov. Tim Kaine, alleging that the state failed to prepare adequately to accommodate a record increase in voter registrations. The suit asks the federal courts to put the federal government in charge of the election.

WISCONSIN
A Dane County judge threw out the state attorney general's lawsuit demanding that election officials validate the identities of hundreds of thousands of new voters by election day, ruling that the checks weren't justified by law. An appeal is pending.

Olberman: "Palin, are you smarter than a 3rd grader?"

Survey says.. NO!! She's not! She's a fucking moron that STILL does not know the role of the Veep. Nice going, Caribou Barbie Florence Gump.

21st Century Turn Around

Return of the Progressives (I hope)

I'd argue that the 60's were the end of the modern progressive era, and we turned from that and have never looked back, much to the damage to our nation.

Our nation was a progressive, liberal democracy post WW2 save for civil rights abuses, of course, but that again shook out by the end of the 60's for the most part.
From FDR to Truman to Eisenhower to JFK and into the era of civil rights fighters, these were the true heroes of the 20th Century. Not Saint Ronny.
All of them forward thinking with regards to their NATION, not for selfishness.

We led ourselves dangerously into a possible path to a new Gilded Age which I hope will be stopped.
And instead of focusing on real issues that affect our nation as a whole, there's so much hand wringing over "wedge issues" that do not have anything to do with my life.
Conversely, while folks are wringing their hands about who can marry who (WHO CARES!!!) their pockets are being picked to transfer wealth from their paychecks to the very machine that Eisenhower warned of, or to the very men that helped bring down Wall Street.

Here's to the new progressives.
Whomever they may be, we need them again.

McSame to Joe the Plumber's wife:

You may not have the constitutional rights you now have under a McSame presidency.
And he will nominate a judge (or more depending) to the Supreme Court that feels the way that he does about abortion, etc..
Also, nice air quotes around "health of the mother". Classy.

Loud and clear, McSame.
I'd like to think that would clear it up for the undecided ladies (at the least) out there.

Other than that, I'd say that McSame again failed to try and find a way to dig out from under the current poll numbers.
At this point, idiot Palin is not even part of the equation.
She's just a fly buzzing around. Everyone knows she's a moron, which is why Obama rightly just brushed off the question about her and the very unlikely chance she becomes VP/Prez.
Then again, he just pals around with terrorists and Palin is a "real american" so what does he know..

Racism, fear, hate, mud.. politics

Boy, it's become ugly out there on the regressive side of politics.
The McSame campaign is getting close to needing life support so they are resorting to sad and tired mud-slinging and a wink and a nod to fear and racism.
Here in CA, they are pleading with rubes and bigots and religious freaks to vote for Prop. 8 so gays can't get married. What do you care if your neighbors are a gay couple?

Bigotry and racism are the gutters where the ignorant wallow in their arrested development.
The political "leaders" and campaign staffers that fill the gutters with this slop are the lowest of the low. Hell, even McSame is getting booed at his own events by his hate-filled supporters when he dares to back up a bit and say that Obama is a good man. Sad.

It's gotten so the regressives are so fearful of a change in policy both here and in the Middle East, that they are trying to tie "low income buyers" to the wall street meltdown. Read: The Blacks.
If you think that incentives to get low income people into homes (as stated purely as such) has even a red cent in the big picture to do with the financial troubles we see now, you need an education. Try reading about Mortgage backed securities and Credit Default Swaps some day if you can understand big words..

What's even more sad is that so many people that wallow in these fearful and bigoted gutters are being pissed on in the end by those that are using their hate and ignorance against others.
It's called "voting against your own best interest".
You might want to stop that some day.

WOW.

First of all, Biden completely crushed Caribou Barbie in the debate.

"Hey, can I call ya Joe?"
What an embarrassment, with her folksy horseshit and her winking at the old republican men jerking off at home. "Darn right!" puke. "We're a couple of mavericks!"
That being said, she barely answered one fucking thing (thanks, moderator for keeping them on topic!) and when she "answered" she was usually wrong.
She flat out said at the beginning that she was going to talk "straight to the American people" and then proceeded to basically ignore the format.
All she did was come on stage and recite a bunch of talking points.
It was staggering to watch her plow forward with string of memorized lines that at times I don't even think she understood.
Palin never told us how McSame is going to be different than Bush and she believes that Cheney is correct about the larger powers of the office of the VP. Or did she just not fully understand the last part? Who knows with this dipshit.

Look, she's clearly out of her league with Biden, but this was a travesty.
Unbelievable.