Of children and nations....

"If all of your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?" How many times has your mother used that old chestnut on you? And so we will eventually use it on our kids and they in turn will use it on theirs ad infinitum until there are no bridges in the world to use as an example. What were our mothers trying to teach us with this little rhetorical question? First of all you better believe that it was rhetorical, because at that point if you tried to answer you were quite likely to receive a quick wallop upside your head! But what was the lesson being imparted? Just because everyone is doing it doesn't make it right.

Remember the first time your younger sibling bit you? Then you, being the logical being that is an older brother or sister, ( but not much older) Bit the younger one back, and they screamed bloody murder, and what happened next? Mom or dad came into the room and clocked you a good one. But the little brother or sister was quickly comforted. Ever notice that the punishment was always to the one who was caught in retaliation? There is a lesson here too, I still haven't quite figured that one out, but maybe someday I will be smart enough to find it. One thing I did learn from it was that if I held my ground and let the younger one poke at me a few more times, mom would catch on and they would get punished! Always the more satisfactory outcome. What does this have to do with nations?

I was given a chance to sign a petition today to support teaching the Geneva Convention rules of warfare and combat in our schools. It makes sense, that we teach it, because it is mentioned in the news quite a bit, ( especially lately!) and it is part of both our history, and hopefully the future of the planet. When I say, "hopefully," I don't mean that I hope we have more wars so that we can use these rules properly, but rather that there comes a time when the basis for these rules, Humane treatment of fellow human beings, becomes the norm on the planet.

There was a time when the ability to grow crops and feed a population was limited by the ground that you controlled. If you didn't have enough farmland in your kingdom, or empire or whatever you wished to call it, you likely had lots of peasants starving and this caused them to rebel and cause problems for the throne. A bad ruler would simply go and kill his own people to make an example of them to stop the rebels. A good ruler would get his peasant army together and channel that anger into conquering more land so that they could haul in bigger crops. Or simply raid neighboring kingdoms for their goods and food. Today, the entire world is much smaller. Not in a literal sense, but in a figurative sense. The technology that allows Americans to grow bumpercrops of wheat and corn and oats, can easily be used by Russians, Germans, Chinese, or anyone in the world who wants to use it and has the land to put it to use. Those countries that do have the natural farmlands, have other things that we need. So we trade them. We send them the food they need and they send us the stuff that we need. It is much easier to ship wheat and corn that it is to move an army.

Since scarcity of resources is no longer the easiest reason to use for hating people, we have decided that ideological, racial, or religious differences will fill the bill. Keep killing. It's the way of the world. You don't follow the same book written by a dead guy 2000 years ago, as I do, so you must be bad and I must kill you. Your parents were born on a different hill that mine, so I must hate you and try to kill you so there are no more of you. You wear different shoes than I do, you must die. There are hundreds of reasons for killing and not one of them makes any sense except in defense of your own life, even then there will often be some doubt about the final choice. No matter what argument you can make there is a counter argument that is just as reasonable.

In the old cowboy movies it was so cut and dried, the good guys always wore the white hats so you knew who to root for. Of course that's if you considered the good guys cause to be right, some people obviously rooted for the "bad guy" because they felt much more in tune with his causes, but in the end, it was always the guy in the white hat who won the day and the heart of the farm girl. But how did he win the day? He was first and foremost reasonable. he used his brain much more than he used his brawn. Ok, to be fair in most westerns he also used his guns and killed plenty of bad guys, but if you remember he never fired the first shot, he was always defending himself. Real life isn't the movies.

In real life there is a vicious cycle to killing, and maiming and even torture. Once the cycle begins it can take generations before it can be ended, if even then. Ask Ireland and the IRA. It is like the Hatfields and the McCoys, or the Montegues and the Capulets, one dies so there is retaliation, but there is no mom to smack some sense into anyone and it continues to escalate until entire nations are brought into the fray. The United Nations was devised to be that "mom", who could put a stop to the squabbleing, but it seems that there is always some rivalry or other going on and someone needs to be smacked upside the head.

You know what really sucks about swatting mosquitoes? When you smack them you are often hurting yourself at the same time, and that is exactly what torture does to nations. There is the satisfaction of causing pain and discomfort to the enemy combatant, but at what cost? I have a friend who was in Vietnam in the late 60's. He fought some of the bloodiest battles of the war, and he helped with many body counts. One of the things that truly affected him was when he would move the body of an enemy soldier, and find them clutching in their hand, pictures of their loved ones. Suddenly they were not soldiers to him, but husbands, fathers, sons and brothers. He knew how he felt about his family, and how they felt about him, and he knew that what he was doing was not right, no matter what the reason. The training that he had received and the years of indoctrination about the "commie bastards", the "gooks" and the "enemy" was no more than political bullshit and what it boiled down to was that he and his friends were doing was not killing simply soldiers, but killing people. True, if he suddenly stopped fighting he would be just as dead as them, but even so, this is where his conscience kicked in, and why he still works hard to atone for what he did there.

Because of the Geneva Conventions, it was possible for American servicemen to become friends with their German prison guards after World War II. Not all of them, but there were some incredible frienships formed, because the guards were not allowed to mistreat their wards, because of the Geneva Conventions. This is only one example, but it is the best one I can think of. Sadly, this was the last time that the Conventions were truly followed, at least by more than less. There were still many evil acts done to prisoners, and often by those people seeking revenge or retaliation for the loss of family or friends. When cities were bombed, people died. Innocent people as well as combatants. Sure, it's part of war, they started it, it's the only way to win, and any other excuse you want to use, but the people that died had family and friends. On both sides.

One has to hope that at some point humanity will see the futility in war. The futility in hate, and the futility in religion, or at the very least the futility of trying to force ones beliefs on others. It probably won't happen in my lifetime, but I can dream. Until then there needs to be some rules to seperate the "Good Guys" from the "Bad Guys". The Geneva Conventions are a good start, "Adopted by 194 countries, the Geneva Conventions safeguard those who do not take part in fighting and those that can no longer fight – wounded, civilians, and prisoners of war. They protect American and foreign citizens alike." If there must be war, there must be reason, even though by definition, war is unreasonable.

" He hit me first!" will not stand up in the court of Mom, and it shouldn't stand up in the Court of the world either. Those that have walked the walk and talked the talk, can tell you that torture only gets you what you want to hear, not the truth. The Geneva Conventions were a good idea when they were new, and they remain a good idea today.

Some days it ain't easy...

Some days a body really has to want to do something more than sit on it's fat ass and do nothing. Even when that's all the mind wants to do is nothing. So when it's been raining for two days at the normal workout time, and the schedule hasn't had much free time for moving the body. So to compensate I ate less. Which really isn't easy since I'm not eating much now by my old standards!

The hot sticky days of summer have finally arrived and I must say that I love it just fine. I hate being cold, so I don't mind the sticky, hazy, hot and humid days of summer. I like floating in the pool. I like riding my motorcycle, my bicycle and rollerblading. Summer is when you can do these things best.

3 Down

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Ever hear the saying, "They always die in Threes."? "They" being the rich and famous. This week three greats are gone. "Greats" of course is a matter of opinion, but from my viewpoint they really were greats, even if the world is divided on the opinion, they were often recognized as greats in their fields. The perpetual sidekick, the "king of pop" and a great actress, one the the original Angels. Yes, I am talking about Ed McMahon, Michael Jackson, and Farrah Fawcett.

Ed McMahon, was the voice of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, I'm old enough to remember that, but what I really remember him from was the blooper show with Dick Clark, and Star Search. If your old enough to remember Star Search, you remember that it was THE thing to watch on Saturday nights. The new, up and coming comics and singers, acrobats, dancers and who can remember what else. The original version of American Idol. They performed head to head and the winner each week took on a new player the following week, and at the end the one who survived was the winner. Who can remember all of the future stars who crossed that stage? Just like Idol today, even most of the losers went on to great things. Sawyer Brown the great country band, a 5 year old LeAnne Rimes. What about Sinbad? These are the three that pop to the top of my own memory, and the TV says that Brittany Spears and Justin Timberlake crossed the stage too, before they were Mousekateers. He gave so many people a start over the years of that show, that it is hard to believe that he is still best remembered as the perpetual sidekick to the class clown, and the Peter Pan of Bandsstand. One more thing that he was known for for many years was being the face of and integrity of Publishers Clearing House. He was the guy delivering the big check, when the winner was chosen and presented. You may already be a millionaire!

Michael Jackson, once one of the most amazing artists on the planet. I freely admit that I was a fan at one point, and I grew up on the sounds of Motown, and the Jackson 5 was part of that sound. "1-2-3", Was probably one of the songs that I remember best of the original family group, along with "Never can say good-bye". I also remember the Saturday morning cartoon of the Jackson 5. Like Scooby-Doo without the stoner and the dog! Yes, the man became the butt of jokes, but it was really a lot of his own doing. With his immense fame came some mind warpage. Who wouldn't get a little freaky when everywhere you went you were a riot waiting to happen. No privacy, no anonymity and never a chance to just walk down a sidewalk without the prying eyes of the tabloids and paparazzi scrutinizing your every move. The truth is that he got weirder and weirder as the years went on, but it seems that some of it was pushing to see when someone would stand up and call him on his stuff. It seems that nobody ever did, until he was arrested and charged with child molesting. It's too bad that this will be his legacy for more than a generation. It will take that long before his music once again becomes the focus of the country where he grew up and got his start, and gave him and his whole family a great career. He had real problems to be sure, but he actual work and contribution to the history of music will far outlast his freakazoid lifestyle.


Farrah Fawcett, just her name inspired the plumber jokes, but she was a great actress. She was a pin-up model, and another one noted for her strangeness. Who can forget the infamous Letterman interview when she seemed to be lost in the ozone and floating in her own little world? One of the original Charlie's Angels, she was the postergirl of the 70's. I can't think of a single one of my friends that didn't have that poster someplace where they could stare at it and her OH so perky nipples. We all longed for the day that we could see her nekkid, and then here comes the 90's and none other than Hugh Hefner gets her to show us them boobies! Not once, but twice! And even on a pay-per-view show where she used her nekkid body as a paint brush. Yeah, she lived up to her reputation. But she was also an actress who did things that were worth watching, the battered wife who sets fire to the house with here drunken husband passed out inside, The Burning Bed. She was the mother and wife who goes into stress induced breakdown in Dr. T and the women. A role that she seemed so perfect for that it was amazing. But she was also a mother to a son who wasn't perfect, and the one time wife of the Six Million Dollar Man,

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

and the live in lover of Ryan O'Neal. The tumultuous relationship provided years of tabloid fodder for the voracious gossip appetites of the tabloid reading public. Beautiful and talented, but in some ways disturbed, she will be missed by many.

I have never figured out why they seem to go in threes, but if you think about it, it almost always seems that three big names always seem to die at close intervals.This time was less than a week, and 2 in the same day! Usually less than a month apart, but on rare occasions the interval can stretch out to 8 weeks, but as far as I remember you really have to dig to find a time in the last few decades when this wasn't the case. Sometimes the Fame Level is questionable, but it is generally they are on par with each other like this now gone trio. Even with the disparate ages, their level of fame remains on par.

Remember them for the great stuff that they did, and not for the jokes that were told about them. Their contributions were worth more than most of us will ever be able to accomplish, and what they did wrong, well, it doesn't really matter anymore does it?

Once again, it's about responsibility...

So here we are with more dumb-asses in the news. How did it come to a dumb-ass, celebrity, gossip-blogger becoming NEWS? So he writes something that is not appreciated by his targets, and eventually one of those targets decided to confront him. Sooner or later one of those targets is not gonna care about a police record and take a poke at him. Seems to me that if I was a celebrity target of these idiots I would have a goon on retainer to go break some fingers now and then.

Of course you know that I'm pissed off about this Perez Hilton Bullshit. These Gossip bloggers hide behind the first amendment like it's armor. I can barely think of them as journalists. As much as I like and respect Harvey Levin, I can't consider TMZ to be real news, and I can't consider him or his associates to be journalists. They are snoops and busybodies. That's it. Perez Hilton is a dopey little twerp who realized that by writing about celebrities, eventually they would take notice of him, and he would get to actually hang out with them. Now that he is himself a "celebrity", (I consider that to be dubious at best ) he has become a target of his own kind. He is the subject of the bloggers.

If you talk shit about people long enough one of them is going to not want to talk. The 1st Amendment protects the freedom of speech and the freedom of expression. By the current standards that means that anyone can say anything about anyone, as long as they can either :A) prove or verify the statements, or B) qualify the statement as rumor or opinion.

Opinion, there is the sticking point, because as the old saying goes, "Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one, and they are sure that theirs doesn't stink." Well, when you voice your opinion long enough and loud enough, you eventually piss people off, especially those whom you are expressing your opinion about. While it is less likely to happen these days, because most people don't feel like making an idiot rich, there was a day when a person was expected to defend their honor, or that of their friends. That often meant calling the idiots and braggarts out to the street for a good old fashioned ass whuppin'. If the braggart won, he kept his honor and the right to talk his particular brand of shit, but if he lost, he was expected to (and usually would) retract all derogatory statements and issue apologies, or expect another ass whuppin' in the near future.

Not today! No way man, if someone decided to make your life miserable, by writing crap about you on their website, you're pretty much stuck with it. There is pretty much no recourse, other than writing your own line of crap on your own website. This is progress! Nope, I think it's time to look at certain laws and bring back the the field of honor. There is no need for killing, that's a little harsh in general. (but not always!) Perhaps it's time to make the bragadocious knuckleheads who spend their lives making other people miserable feel a little actual pain. Just because they say that they are only using words, it is only words that cause many teenager each year to take their own lives, because they can't deal with the repercussions of those words.

The great writers like to say, "the pen is mightier than the sword." Yet, when called on the pain their writing causes to people, they love to respond, "But it's only words." So which is it, your majesties? Does the power of the pen trump Stick and Stones, or is it possible that you must take responsiblity for the pain that your words cause? Someday you may well get more than a black eye for writing mean things about people. Even if you do it in jest, or with a grin, not everyone knows that you're doing it in such a way. And when you get self-righteous about your right to write what ever you wish, just remember that Karma is a bitch, and sooner or later you will have to pay a price for the meanness that you put into the world.

OH yeah, and one more thing, If you were truly hurt, you would not have tweeted about your assault, until you were in the ER sitting in a bed and getting stitches. If you can't take your medicine, don't play in the rain!

So Ironically, I have spent my freedom of speech talking shit about PEREZ HILTON. But you know what? It's only words!

Too many dreams...

Dreams of travel, and dreams of leisure, riches and pleasures. Every day we dream about what could be, and what we feel should be, but mostly what we would like most. Or at least what we think we would like most. Everyone knows the old saying, "Money can't buy happiness." and that is true is many ways, but it can also be a fallacy if taken to be literally true. Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy things that help one find their happiness.

I wish to travel and see the world. With money, I could do this much more easily, with lots of money I could also do it comfortably! To me travel is about learning new things and seeing new places and experiencing things in new ways. Part of this is learning new languages. Since I am not surrounded by the united nations I have to seek out ways to learn new languages, and again that can take money. So money doesn't buy the happiness, but the things that bring the happiness.

There is another old saying, "If you find a job you love, you will never work again." This one I think is much more truthful. Who hasn't been doing something that they thoroughly enjoy, and thought that if they could make a living at it, they would be happy to do it all the time. Everyone has something that they like to do, and that the are at least reasonably good at. I love taking pictures. I like travel, and taking pictures. If I could find a way to pay the bills and travel and take pictures, I would be quite content in my work. To me I wouldn't be working, even with a deadline and the need to take certain pictures. As long as it was all that I had to do to get my pay, I would be pretty darn happy.

Sadly, most of the world does what it has to do to pay the bills. People in generally do what they must do to survive, and that means that most people in the world are not really doing what they love. The brunt of humanity survives, and they find happiness in the little pleasures that life hold. Physical pleasure in sex, or the chemical pleasure in drugs or alcohol. The pleasure of the company of friends who think and feel the same way that we do about our lot in life. The pleasure of a day away from work, doing that thing that we true love to do. Laying in the sun, swimming in the pool or the lake, slicing through the water on a sail boat. Playing with the children, turning the soil and tending to a garden. Pleasure is like beauty, it is in the eye of the beholder. To me mowing the lawn is a pleasure, but to many it is a chore that must be done.

Doing what you must, and doing what you love. It depends on which one can keep you in beer and skittles. Sometimes you do what you must so that you will have the money and time to do what you love. Too many dreams, not enough time to do what I must in order to pay for what I love. Money can't buy happiness, but it can pay for the stuff that makes me happy.

Riding...

I'm a rider, I ride a motorcycle and I love it. There are some very important things that one needs to remember when riding a motorcycle.

My first rule of riding is to be aware of what is going on around you. To survive on a motorcycle you must believe that you are invisible and nobody can see you. Expect them to pull out in front of you and make sure you are prepared. Expect them to turn without signals, and be prepared. They are in a tank, you are riding an eggshell. Who wins in the crash? The tank beats the eggshell every time.

Even when there is no law that tells you to wear a helmet, it's really a good idea, because eventually everyone goes down, and the helmet can be the difference between being a dude on crutches or being an organ donor. A good friend of mine ( who has gone down!) says all the time, "Dress for the crash, not for the ride." His point is that while 99% of the time you will probably have a normal day, a few idiots drive you nutty, but all in all there is no incidents, but that 1% of the time you will be very happy to have put on the helmet and long pants, gloves and long sleeves. Some people go all out with the leather and the pads, I'm not quite that bad. I do believe that you should never ride in shorts, take a stone thrown up from a tire in the side of the leg once or twice, or perhaps have your calf bump into a hot tranny, jug or pipe, and you will remember that skin is much more delicate than you can believe. Good shoes or boots are always the better choice over sandals. You laugh, I have seen knuckleheads riding in shorts and sandals! You never know when your gonna have to drop a foot to the road surface, it's not common, but a sandal or your bare foot is pretty useless at that point, a boot is always a better friction source. I am guilty of riding in short sleeves, but only for small rides, in general when I am riding for more than short run to town, I try to wear long sleeves, especially if I'm on a road trip. First of all the sunburn is killer. Secondly, it's just better protection for the skin, bees and hard-shelled bugs can actually draw blood. I have had it happen!

Keep the Bike in good repair. Cobbled brakes, cracked tires and oil leaks are not good. There is nothing worse than being out on the road away from your tools or your mechanic and having bike trouble. Ask me I know! Of all the problems I have ever had, only the dirty air filter was completely preventable. I have gotten bad gas, and had to have the carbs drained and cleaned, while on a road trip. I have blown a headlight out on the highway at dusk! I have fouled spark plugs and had speedometer and tach cables break. You can never prevent everything that can go wrong, but by taking care of your equipment you can minimize the things that do.

Enjoy the wind, and ride safe. If you don't ride, keep your eyes wide. Bikes are small and fast. Look twice and be sure that there is no bike coming before you pull out, Please! We will do our best, but we need you to look out for us too.

Life continues... for some....

People continue to die, and the US government continues it's Genocide of the American Indian. There is far too much for the American Government to finish on the reservations of America, before they can even hope to be able to begin formulating a healthcare plan for the general public. Prove that they can care for the people that they tried to eradicate, and then maybe they can start working on the rest of the population. The government has the bad habit of making a law and then forgetting about it. This is this proof. The US Government needs to revisit the books from time to time and adjust for the current situation, this is definitely one of those time. 700 Billion dollars to bail out idiot financial "wizards", yet people continue to die. There is no need for it, and no good excuse either.

Warm blooms...

As summer approaches, there are more and more flowers blooming all over the place, and every now and then some are so cool that I just feel like taking a few pics of them. Sometimes I get carried away and get 20 pics of the same blossom, and other times I get one and I can never find that particular bloom again, and I want more!!

So this is a peony that I have in one of my yards. It was left by the people who once lived on this property, and it grew wild for about 20 years and nobody paid it any attention, then I unknowingly mowed it down the first 3 years that I owned the property, then I realized what I was seeing there and I let it grow. Boy, I'm glad that I di, it has proven to be an amazing little bush. It blooms every year and the blooms are huge and SO sweet smelling that you can't believe it. The sad part is that the blooms are so big that the slightest wind or a good rain will knock them down, because they are too big for their own stems!



I have no idea what this bloom is called, but I have a bunch of them in various colors and I really like them. They are low to the ground and really bright.
They come in so many colors that I have to get pictures of all of my favorites. The more neon-y colors are my favorite. They are like little electric sparks in the garden. They have come from a wildflower mix that I bought a few years ago, and it takes 2 years for them to show up, but when they do... Man is it worth the wait!






I love this little one because the blooms are still opening and they are uncurling in such and neat way that I wonder how nature puts things together sometimes! They kind of remind me of a bouquet or roses and rose buds mixed together.
No matter how you slice it they look pretty darn cool.

Not all blooms are flowers, at least not our "normal" definition of a flower. But Mushrooms are also a flower of a sort, because it is the head that grows the spores which eventually become the seeds of the next generation. And they look so cool!






Never take for granted the lowly little Mushroom, after all, he really is a "Fungi"!! LOL old, stupid joke but still funny!
When you live in a place where most panoramic views are blocked by trees, hills or buildings, you tend to appreciate them more when you actually see them. I am lucky in that I have a place where I can see this basic view every day, and some people might think that this would get boring. Truthfully it is far from boring, because it is nature that changes the view, stars, wind-blown dust, blooming fields, harvested fields, waving grass, painted trees, fluffy clouds, flat clouds, gray clouds, white clouds and snow! Look out in the rain sometimes and later you are treated to a rainbow. These things are all out there to see, but you have to look now and then to catch them.

There is nothing more ephemeral than a view in nature. If you forget to look you may never get the chance again.

funny what changing, changes...

Hello Lovely readers, and thank you for paying attention! If you have been following this blog for the last few weeks, you know that I have been on a mission to lose some weight and to change my lifestyle.

One of my changes is activity, I need to be more active, and I have been riding my bicycle as often as possible, for at least 30 minutes each day. I tried to do this last year, but that little seat seemed to hurt my fat ass, so I went and got a different seat, and now it's MUCH better. The seat is wider and a little softer, so it is less likely to disappear up my ass! Now that I can feel that my ass cherry is safe when I ride, I actually like it again. I have to say that now that I am riding on daily basis, when the weather is bad enough that I can't ride, I actually miss that 30 minutes or more out there in the wind and the sun. I never thought that there would be a time when I was missing physical activity. Heck you could knock me over with a feather when I realized it. I have a new pair of rollerblades that I am getting used to, and I hope to be able to skate for an hour without needing to rest my feet before the summer is over. I wish I had somebody close by who I could play frisbee with. or to ride with, or to skate with. I'm ready to have some company while I try to get myself smaller.

Someone asked me why I decided to lose weight, did I have heart problems or diabetes or high blood pressure, and truthfully, I had none of those problems. What I had was sore feet, and a belt that was getting tighter in the same hole! I was in the shower one morning and I realized that I had to lift up my tummy to make sure that I rinsed all the soap out from under the fat roll. Then I looked in the mirror and realized that I had fat rolls under my arms! I had become the people who disgusted me in wal-mart! My knees hadn't yet started knocking together when I walked, and My pants size was still under 50, but it was getting close, and I was completely disgusted with myself. That's why I decided to lose weight!

I am getting into smaller pants now, and in fact I had to dig out a smaller belt and punch a new hole in it so I could keep up my smaller pants. Man, how good did that make me feel? !! I keep working at it, and I know that eventually I will be even smaller yet. I keep working at it, and seeing results sure makes me feel better about what I am doing, and gives me motivation to continue.

I'm feeling better, and with the right plastic surgeon I could even look better!!

the fall continues...

The falling weight that is!! Yes indeed, I am now down 40 pounds. It seems like a huge amount when you think about it, but it barely scratches the surface of what I wish I could get rid of. The good news is that I am nearly halfway to my goal. I stepped onto the scale this morning not knowing what to expect, because it has been a weird week, and I haven't gotten in all of my wanted exercise time, but I have been busy and doing physical labor, so I guess it has been a wash.

I have been taking great pains during the regular week to stay away from certain things, but in order to keep myself from binging out of control I use from dinner time on Saturday night through dinner time on Sunday as my " have some of the good stuff" time, and today I treated myself to some chips and dip! So far my method has been working, and I will continue with what I am doing, despite all of the unsolicited advice I seem to be getting from so many well wishers!

I ran into a friend at the store today while I was buying my Chips and dip, and He was happy to hear that I had made such progress, and being in quite good shape Himself, he immediately started to make suggestions for me. I appreciate the thought, and that you are trying to help, but I have found a system that is working quite well for me, and I plan to stick to it for as long as it takes to accomplish my goal, and possibly more if I think I can continue doing so. I doubt that I will ever again see the underside of 200#, but that said, if I can continue at the pace that I am going I really could achieve my goal before the summer is finished. I have found a system that I have been able to stick with, and it works well for me. I am feeling better each day, and my energy is increasing also. I find that the more I do, the better I feel later. It is truly encouraging.

My current favorite picture

Click on the blossom to see a bigger version. See the sparkles and the details.

" A rose by any other name..."

As the Bard wrote in "Romeo & Juliet", "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." It is a truth of humanity and life in general, that no mater what you call something, it is what it is, and no changing of the name can make the debate more or less meaningful. What brings this up you ask, 2 things, assholes ( the people not the body part) and "Gay Marriage".

First the assholes, The internets seem to be stuffed full of them, crammed to the gills with jerks of every shade and texture who think they are being "truthful" or "honest" or "real". By writing in the comments of blogs and comics and news articles, they take the time to spill bile on the works of others. They feel that their opinion matter more than anyone else's and it makes no difference that they are tactless and generally ignorant of most social graces. I have pretty much given up on reading comments sections of many comics and blogs because of these argumentative and annoying know-it-alls and their need to argue every point of minutia, ad nauseum. Someone creats something that is funny or interesting, or beautiful to some people and that is great. Yet there are those who feel that it is their job to speak for those who don't like something. If you don't find it funny, or intersting or beautiful, go find something that you do like. You don;t have to ruin the enjoyment for those of us who do like it, for whatever reason we choose to find it enjoyable. I bet these are the same people who pinch babies just to hear them cry. Bullies are bullies, because no one can or has stood up to them. When the hide behind a computer keyboard and piss on everything the can find on the web and call it honesty, they are just jerks. Come tell me to my face that I suck, and I may respect you dumb ass! Until you have that much stones, leave your bile in your notebook and let the rest of the world enjoy the creativity of others as we see fit.

Now on the subject of "gay marriage", I couldn't care less whether two people of the same sex get married or not. Calling it a :"Civil Union' instead of a marriage makes no freakin sense at all, because all marriages equal a civil union if you have been "legally" married in the eyes of the state. If you have had a wedding at a church, it is called a "ceremony" and is nothing more than a ritual performed in front of friends and family, but it is not a legal union until the marriage certificate is filed with the local authorities. It gives you the right to file taxes as a couple, and to collect death benefits from insurance, and to cover a spouse with insurance. Now many of the opposition say that the insurance is the big problem it will increase premiums and make it harder to pay for insurance if all the gays can put their spouses on their insurance. As opposed to the straight people who make kids by the thousands each year and add them to their insurancd policies? It is less likely that a gay couple will add a child to their insurance. No unlikely, simply less likely. In many cases the gay couples who wish to marry, have already had and raised their kids, and they are independent persons with their own families. In the cases of the younger couples, perhaps they will have a child of their own, or maybe adopt, but the statistics say that it is likely that they will only have or adopt one child, and in rare instances 2. Breeders may have 3,4,5 or more kids. By design or by accident, they will have 2.5 kids ( that's what the statistics say!) where you get half a kid I have no idea! But still, adds to the insurance costs for everyone and it's not the gays we need to worry about! Marriage also allows for hospital visitation, and legal transfer of land, and to provide citizenship to those not born in America. There is no reason that makes sense for keeping these people from calling what they want a marriage. A rose called a turd blossom still smells like a rose, and if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, you can call it a parrot all you want, but I bet it is still a duck.

So just keeping it real, Let them gays get married for cryin' out loud, who does it really hurt? No one!