This day, August 19 2007, will henceforth be know as the day of "the incident." We have been planning a garden outside the back of the house for some time, and while she is in California I decided to finish the digging. About half of the ground is clay and the other half is rocks, so it's miserable work. The hole is about 30 feet long, 4 feet wide and a foot and a half deep. I had excavated out a ton of rocks, and was using clay to make an even flooring to absorb water. While doing this Rygel was helping me dig and making himself a right mess. This is ok, he was going to get a bath today anyway, and I put an empty trash can in the way of his walkway so he couldn't go inside all messy. Well, I finished digging and had leveled out the clay, and I used the hose to wet the whole place to help settle the clay and make a flat bottom. Rygel loves the hose, so he jumped in and proceeded to roll around in wet, muddy clay and hose water. He was the sloppiest I've ever seen him. Well, I begin hosing myself off outside, when all of a sudden he goes rocketing up his ramp and to my chagrin, he makes a flying leap at the trash can, knocking it over and exposing the door which he quickly went through. I ran around the deck, up the stairs, opened the gate and went in, but the damage was done. I took him back outside, then took off all my muddiness and we went into the bathroom to have a bath. Nevertheless, the damage was done.

This is the hole, which will be filled with dirt and planted soon.

A muddy, mucky mess, he is.

His white face patches are brown with dirt.

The bathroom. He definately slipped out of the tub and shook mud everywhere.

A closeup of the bathroom floor.

The tub, oh the tub, and this is AFTER the shower, when much of it rinsed off.

He rolled in his towel a bit.

Whose paw prints are those on the deck???

My muddy socks and boots, which obviously didn't help.

Wipe your paws??? notice the paw prints up the door, that's from the flying leap into the trash can.

Notice the muddy carpet prints, the muddy tile, and the busted honkey locked up while I scrubbed the carpet.

See if you can guess where Rygel went!

Dear George Bush...

I know you led this country into an ill advised war. I know you hijacked faith and patriotism in order to further your personal agendas. I know you've filled the government of this country up with so many personal friends that it will be decades until we're rid of them all. I know you've used signing statements and the vito to extend your reach far into the legislative branch, and I know you've used pardons, denied subpoenas and fired opposition to gain reach into the judicial branch. I know your cohort Cheney has taken the opposite approach of removing himself from different branches he is supposed to be in. Under your care, Habeus Corpus has been suspended, freedoms have been restricted, speech is censored, opposition is squashed, America's position in the world has disintegrated and the general distrust for the government is at an all time high.

Mr. Bush, you've had quite a presidency, but there's one thing I ask you to accomplish as soon as you can.

Please get your dick sucked so we can finally impeach you and clean off the slate for the future of this nation.

- Joe

  Far be it to me to reference the Pope as an authority, but in this article he discusses how the debate between evolution and creationism is BS. As I've noted many, many times before, enthusiasts in creationism are dumping on their own faith by saying that truth and faith must be mutually exlusive and cannot change, and evolutionists must acknowledge that you can't disprove god (though I'll be the first to say that not knowing how something originated does not give one permission to default to the "see, it must have been god!" argument) I applaud the Pope in this move which to me is a great step in the direction of ending animosity between creationists and evolutionists. Hopefully, one day people who are all just searching for truth can stop hating each other and just say "you have your explanation, I have mine, and until we see otherwise let's just be friends."

  P.S. Mom, how's that for "you're only willing to look at your perspective and jump to conclusions too fast?" I'm the anti-catholic, agreeing with the Pope. That's why I can vote for Ron Paul, a Republican, when I'm a freaking anarchist.

  Life is pretty good. North Carolina is just dandy, the house is perfectly liveable, I have not one but two jobs (kinda) and a new baby puppo named Rygel! Let me start from the beginning.
  The house is all set up, all the electronics are all together and painting has definately been progressing. I have a video tour of the house which shows off what it's looking like right now. There's more to be done, but it's at the point that if we don't do it immediately, it's totally fine. Upkeep is nuts, I've never had to mow a lawn before (I miss cheap crews of 6!) and we have a big one.
  I spent 3 weeks working with a staffing company. Right at the time I started working there (I did administrative/secretary type stuff) they were in the process of being bought out and a lot of the old office staff quit, resulting in the office being very understaffed and having a lot of confusing new policies. Long story short, they knew I was still looking for another job and I was able to help them out in a time they just needed bodies. For a lot of my 3 weeks I was the only person in the office at all, and I ended up working 60 hour weeks which I got paid for. None of that "Work 60 and get paid for 20" crap. I will continue to stay on their payroll to help them out on an as needed basis, for example, checking new employees in at 6:30 in the morning or helping with weekend paperwork. Long story short, I was there for the three hell weeks that were the perfect storm of old people leaving, all working employees (100 or so) having to come in to refill out paperwork, and the people who will be staying there going to a new manager's conference and having to be gone.
  I then took an AWESOME job at UNCGreensboro in the office of Adult Students. I'm the "Office Manager and Web Designer" which is a fancy word for Program Assistant. The cool thing about this job though is that the director and I are the only full time staff in the office (there's some work study students) and she would like to grow the office, but can't get funding for another person. My Higher Ed background is great for the director because if I do some higher-ed type work, which she made sure to tell me is not part of the job description, it will benefit the office and possibly pave the way for making a new position in the office if a need is demonstrated. Either way, this job is really really ideal for me seeing as it has a large tech and web component, has a lot of organization to it, has room but not demands for programming and professional development, and works with a population that truly appreciates the value of education, something I sorely miss (and have already seen is in abundance here). Oh, and it doesn't hurt that I applied to this job being staggeringly overqualified (required a HS diploma) so I am at the top of the pay scale :). No one else would even interview me since I had no experience, so when I leave here in a few years or so, I'll have years of office experience, more Higher Ed Experience, and IT and web experience (which held me back from getting a job in IT, since I've never worked in an IT specific position, and web developer is in the job title here). I'll be perfectly rounded out and set to get whatever job I want, and until then I'm making plenty to start saving and live comfortably.
  Speakin of liivin comfortably, we got a puppy! His name is Rygel, which in my brain is short for Dominar Rygel the 17th, Dominar of the Hynerian Empire and over 600 billion loyal subjects. Read about his namesake here. He's 100% puppy! His date of birth is June 4 so he's 7 weeks old today. He loves to chew and explore, is still learning his name and to not pee everywhere, and loves a warm person to sleep against. If you're in the area, come see him!
  For the last 6 years, things have been good and bad on and off, but the one thing that stayed the same is that everything changed all th etime. To explain, I moved every 9 months or so in undergrad, changed majors 3 times, went to grad school, moved 3 times, shifted this and that, had my car blow up, changed jobs several times, pretty much had very little sense of normalcy. Now, I have a stable job, a reliable car, a home I will be in for at least 2 years, very comfortable responsibilities, a puppy and everything. I finally feel like this is a place to just put some roots in and enjoy for a while. I know it's not good to be stagnant, but the thought of living in a place and not having "I could paint but I have to unpaint in 8 months" hanging over my head, or "I should set the stereo up so it's easy to tear down in a year" is so nice, I just am so happy to just sit still for a while, to rest. I hope that makes sense, for the first time in many years I feel like I'm taking a true breath.

  I like that Ron Paul vehemently wants to end the war. I don't like that he's anti gun control. I like that Obama is pro stem cells. I don't like that he's anti gay marriage. I like that Kunich is pro net neutrality. I don't like that he's anti death penalty. So who do I want to vote for? John Kerry. Wow, that's dumb, you must be saying. Not only isn't he running, he couldn't win the last time. I saw something back then that made me want to vote for him that apparantly no one else saw and I stand by him to this day. Rather than choose a candidate because their personal opinions align closely with yours, and then expect that candidate to act along their own personal interests resulting in an agenda roughly aligned with your own, John Kerry believed in democracy. It's been a while, if I find the article I'll post a link, but I think on the issue of church and state, John Kerry said something that gave me hope and still does to this day. Essentially, he said "I have this opinion, but my opinion is not what is important, it is the will of the people so even if I disagree with that I will support it if it's what the people want." Think about it people, are we really electing people so that they can pursue their personal agendas? If that's the deal, then more power to Bush and Cheney for this war, they hit the nail on the head. I am looking for a candidate who says "this is my opinion on these issues. Any policies made will reflect national interest and the will of the people to my best ability to gague it, not my personal opinions." I hate the election process, I hate political parties who feed us their own short list of people to select from, and I hate that we're sitting around! At the risk of bringing FBI agents to my door (see you tonight guys) in the olden days of this country the actions of the current government would have resulted in a militia with muskets to storm the white house and revolutionize! Maybe that's what it takes, an army of 1000 citizens to storm the white house and take the government back! Phooey to those people who say voting can change things, we thought we did that by voting a Democratic majority into congress and all they've been able to do is prompt the executive branch to become more absurd with their power wielding (The vice president isn't in the executive branch, the security committe members can't access security information, and checks and balances is a pretty word for executive branch is in charge.) If a militia formed to take back this country and reinstate the constitution with democracy at the forefront of the intent, hand me a musket and make me a soldier with something worthwhile to die for rather than an ill-advised reach into a hornets nest.

Hey, a few people have asked me what I've been up to so rather than answer everyone individually, I figured I'd go note.

The house is awesome, if you saw my website you saw the initial stage of the house, long story short there's a lot of new paint and furniture, and the electronics are out of control. Our power bill will probably be astronomical this month. Oh well. I hope to be getting a dog soon.

I had a resume on Career Builder.com, and this staffing company found me and asked me in for an interview. They're in the process of merging with a national company and some of their office staff left, so they were looking for someone to fill in. I made sure they knew I was still job searching, and they said it was fine, if I don't find something else I could stay on, and if I did then they appreciate the time I did have there. I've been there for 3 weeks now and it's just fine, it's a job that pays the bills and that's exactly what I need. I've been doing generic office work, taking phones, paperwork, etc.

However, I also had an interview at UNC Greensboro's office for Adult Students. The position's classification is "Administrative Support Associate" with a working title of "Office Manager and Web Developer." It's a small office, just this individual, the director, and a part time worker, and when I initially applied they approached me from the angle of "you know, this position will require you to do a lot of student-affairsy stuff in addition to administrative associate type stuff" as if it was a down-point. Long story short, I interviewed for the position and got it! I start on the 16th of July, it's about 1/2 hour away from my house, and I think it'll be a good fit.

So there's my deal, catch you on the flip side.