The Nony Spot

Keith Olbermann

2008-11-03T02:27:00.005-05:00

I've been watching way too much MSNBC lately. I used to hate shows like "Hardball with Chris Matthews" (heartburn and boredom were always the result after watching for about 30 minutes). Lately - in the last few months - I haven't been able to stop watching. Chris' show is interesting because he has a spectrum of people as guests that offer varible points of view and as much as I may disagree with some of them, it is still informative to hear what they have to say.

After Chris' show is "Countdown with Keith Olbermann". Keith's show is a little... different. Keith is crazy over the top liberal. I consider myself a fairly liberal-minded person but Keith makes me look as purple as an eggplant! Last night I was watching Saturday Night Live and I saw Ben Affleck do a skit as Keith Olbermann on Countdown. It was kind of harsh but entertaining - not so entertaining that I didn't fall asleep before the end of it though. Anyway, Ben Affleck's impression of Keith as the far left leaning soap box ranting liberal was fair. Despite that I enjoy watching "Countdown..." and wondered what exactly propted the SNL skit of Keith in the first place. Had he said something stupid to make the SNL smartass brigade foam at the mouth for him? I decided to google him - just for kicks and that's when I figured it out. People hate Keith Olbermann. Poor Keith... Just type him into google and see for yourself. Meanwhile, here's Affleck as Olbermann.

Hardball & Heartburn

2008-10-03T00:59:00.002-04:00

Some ignoramus that Chris Matthews was talking to on Hardball (MSNBC) after the debate today (apparently a student at the university where the vice presidential debates took place) said he is pro-war therefore he supports McCain. Pro-war? What a jackass. I just can't wrap my mind around that. A lot of the people who I've met who actually made it back from fighting in a war came back broken, depressed, and defeated... so defeated that they find it hard at times to feel proud about having served their country. I can't even imagine what the people left behind are like. It might seem more reasonable to me if I could see us stepping in over something urgent and immediate - something absolutely and tangibly wrong (a fight for human rights or to stop genocide), but I can't see blindly supporting a war that isn't anywhere near accomplishing the goals our country set out to accomplish when it first started. Politician's promises of beating down terrorism and improving national security are becoming more ethereal by the day. Thinking about it all just makes me sick. I feel physically ill over it!

Watching the presidential and vice presidential debates just leaves me frustrated and makes my stomach churn as well. I've already chosen my candidate so unless someone screws up big, these debates won't sway my decision much. I watch them because I think it’s important to see how all of the candidates respond under pressure - being asked the tough questions. I think it's important to watch and listen to their responses because whether they choose to answer the questions or to completely ignore the debate format and speak to their own agenda, I think it tells us a lot about who they are as leaders and who they are as people. As much as all of that is good and responsible, the problem is that it really stresses me out. It doesn’t stress me out because it makes me question who I’m voting for. It stresses me out because I occasionally hear my candidates answer questions on subjects like climate change in a manner that makes them come off as a little uninformed making me wish they’d done a little more research before stepping on stage. It frustrates me to hear the other candidates try to win America's vote by talking in folksy terms and winking at the camera (look at how well falling for the lovable idiot panned out for us after the last two elections).

I have to admit that the thing that bothers me the most is to hear a candidate make the assumption that because I’m middle class, I automatically subscribe to the “don’t raise taxes no matter whose taxes they are or what the situation is” mantra. I am the middle class. I am one of the people they’re talking about… the working full time, worried about the economy, savings, and retirement, under 50 grand a year people in America. That’s me. And no, the idea of paying even MORE taxes is not appealing to me but for once I’d like to hear one of these guys propose a plan for economic relief that is actually going to outlast any political term of office. I’m really sick and tired of this shortsightedness. I am ready for the wealth in this country to be redistributed. Of course that is easier for me to say as one of the “not rich” people in this country but then again, most of the people in this country aren’t rich by our definitions. Most of us fall into the middle class and the impoverished. And the people who are rich wouldn’t be able to be rich without us. So why should they reap all of the benefits (tax breaks or otherwise) without giving back? If they were truly putting that money back into our economy wouldn’t we all be a little more confident that America isn’t trundling towards a recession. I’m not confident. Are you? I don’t think the bullshit trickle down economic model is working the way the politicians in the old days promised it would. Do you? I’m so sick of this crap. I’m ready for something new.

My heartburn and I are going to bed now. Good luck to all of us in the years to come. It’s going to be a tough, long, road to recovery. My only hope is that we don’t have to hit rock bottom first.

Big Huge Lab's mosaic maker

2008-07-03T02:07:00.002-04:00

My Friend Micha did this on her blog and I thought it was fabulous! You can see her mosaic on her blog (It’s the Hummingbird blog link at the right). If you have an account on Flickr, give this a try. It’s really fun.

Here's how it works:Rules:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.

b. Using only the first page, pick an image.

c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Big Huge Lab's mosaic maker (which you can find by typing "Big Huge Lab's mosaic maker" into search).

Questions:

1. What is your first name? (Sonya – this search brought up a lot of pictures of half naked women, both real and animated, and some funky European drag queen... and then there were a few like this)

2. What is your favorite food? (Pizza – this photo cracks me up. It’s the whole food that looks like other food issue… it used to come up on that show Ace of Cakes all the time.)

3. What high school did you go to? (Del Valle)

4. What is your favorite color? (Green)

5. Who is your celebrity crush? (Luke Wilson)

6. Favorite drink? (Margarita)

7. Dream vacation? (Italy)

8. Favorite dessert? (Caramel Cake)

9. What you want to be when you grow up? (Artistic Geologist?)

10. What do you love most in life? (Learning new things)

11. One Word to describe you. (Indecisive)

12. Your flickr name. (Nonyite – there were no results for this so I had to shorten it to Nony and this search yielded a basket’s worth of baby pictures)

I followed the directions completely and oddly, I found that half of the photos I chose came from one person’s profile – someone whose Flickr name is Spaceball. I didn’t notice until I was ready to complete the mosaic. Odd, right? Anyway, I swapped a lot of those out because they weren’t working with the mosaic maker but I am happy with the result anyway.

Let me know what yours looks like if you decide to give it a try.

Goodnight!

Nony

Green Porno

2008-05-08T23:22:00.004-04:00

I was downloading podcasts of the NPR show called Radio Lab this evening. My friend Bryan told me the one on laughter is particularly interesting in case you want to check it out too.

Anyway, on the blog page for Radio Lab at http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/ there is a post called Insect Porn dated May 07, 2008. It gives a link to The Sundance website where you can view bug sex videos - short films with performances by Isabella Rosellini on bug reproduction - which are both grotesque and hilarious. Check it out here.

http://www.sundancechannel.com/greenporno

LinkedIn and Correct Clothing

2008-04-22T02:07:00.005-04:00

I have a couple of different posts to write tonight but I feel the need to compartmentalize and discuss topics separately, so here I go.

First - LinkedIn
I have a gmail account that I use strictly for business and professional networking. Since I am pretty comfortable with my current job, I sometimes forget to check this account for months at a time. Anyhow, I used this special e-mail address of mine to create a profile on this website that my brother in law introduced me to called LinkedIn that is structured so that you can network with folks from your place of business, former places of employment, and alumni from your college(s). I haven't used it much and when I created my profile... I'll be honest, I did kind of a half assed job of it. A few months ago the current president of my undergraduate school, Colorado College, came for a visit with the Austin Area Alumni group. This website came up in conversation and he discussed the importance of social and professional networking and spoke about how this website could be a really valuable tool for alumni etc. I felt guilty for doing a poor job on my profile but apparently not guilty enough to update my profile! Finally this evening I was checking my e-mail and ridding this account of spam when I saw a message from LinkedIn telling me that a friend from my undergraduate college, Greg, had joined and wanted to network with me. I signed in and finally fixed up my shabby little profile. I then proceeded to get hung up looking for other people I knew on this website. Who knew LinkedIn was the Myspace of professional networking? It's kind of addictive like Myspace but harder to use and it is devoid of good music to listen to while you search for connections - so in other words, have your iTunes open to make up for it. Despite that, I think I may end up liking this website and I hope it proves to be useful... but the jury is still out. Try it for yourself if you like.

Anyway, after about half an hour of looking for everyone I know under the friggin sun, I finally found a few people. One of them is a fella I know from Bloomington, Indiana named Jason Krothe - and that brings me to my next subject.

Jason Krothe & Correct Clothing
Jason is husband to my friend Kenny's sister and is also the son of one of the geology professors at IU where I got my M.S. degree. He is also a geologist, like me, and he got his graduate degree here in Austin at UT. Don't confuse the time line though. When I met him, I met him through my friend Kenny in Indiana after Jason and his wife had moved back to Bloomington and before I moved to Austin. Okay, my head is starting to hurt. How about you? This is craziness. So, by chance, I found Jason's profile on LinkedIn and because I am notoriously bad at keeping in touch, I found out through his LinkedIn profile (not through Jason himself) that he and a friend launched a new street wear company recently called Correct Clothing. When I lived in Indiana, I had seen some of the T-shirt designs Jason did with the small company he had previously (was it called airproof inc?) and I loved them. I have one of his designs in my closet as I type this. I've had it for years and it is getting really worn and holey becuase I've used it a LOT but I love it too much to let it die a graceful death... that's how cool of a design it is. Anyway, I find the whole thing really exciting. I have always wanted to learn to screen print and have always been interested in design for popular culture. I would love to do something of that sort myself one day. In fact, I think I remember talking to Mike H. about this. Mike? Do you remember that? Anyway, I'm really happy for Jason and his friend and I hope they do really well with their business. If you have a minute, click the link below and check out the website.

http://www.correctclothing.com/

And if any of the designs really strike your fancy, help a hoosier out and order one! I plan to do that myself. That actually reminds me... the T-shirt I just told you about... the one that is getting holey after many many years of heavy use... I wore it in the 10K race I walked in last year, the Texas Round-up. Well guess what! It's that time of year again. I'm doing the 10K again this Saturday - this time under a heavy veil of Oak and grass pollen. Wish me well, I'll need it! Anyway, I was going to write my next post about the Texas Round-up but I'm too wiped out now so I'm going to bed. I'll try to update again tomorrow or Wednesday.

Toodles till then!

Scooby Doo - Feline Style

2008-03-24T22:29:00.003-04:00

My cat just pulled a Scooby Doo on a stack of 8 magazines. You know... he looked like he was running in mid-air but not going anywhere as the magazines shot off of the coffee table from under him - one by one. That was the funniest dang thing I've seen all week! Well, almost... I watch a lot of comedy.

Australia - next on my travel wish list

2008-03-21T22:31:00.004-04:00

I want to go to Australia. I'm sure you could think of a million reasons why I'd want to go but instead of allowing you to speculate, I'll just list some.

1) Shark Bay in Western Australia (a world heritage site) is the home of some of the last surviving stromatolite reefs. Geologists believe these veggie mounds changed the Earth's atmosphere around 2.5 billion years ago from a carbon dioxide-rich mixture to the present-day oxygen-rich atmosphere; basically paving the way for the next evolutionary step. I’d really like to see these things with my own eyes… and not just in a rock formation.

2) Last year, I read "In a Sunburned Country" and loved it. Bill Bryson got me all excited about ridiculous and giant Australian roadside attractions. Wasn't one of them a giant sea cucumber or tube worm? Wouldn't that just look like a large shaky siloh? Not sure... let's go find out.

3) I'm a sucker for the Aussie accent and wouldn’t mind it a bit if the future Mr. McHubby was a cute & witty Aussie with an accent.

4) I've found a great and sexy band there called The Panics (see previous blog post). If I managed to meet my future Mr. McHubby, I might decide to stay in Australia and I could see those boys play live shows on a regular basis.

5) Lately, in general, I've noticed that I am taking more of an interest in all things Australian... such as the movie "December Boys" which made me cry like a baby. It is out on DVD now, so if you have a chance, check it out. It is about four young boys who leave their orphanage for a vacation (holiday) by the sea. Two of the seaside residents consider adopting one of the orphans, causing some tension among them, but I won't say any more than that because I won't be able to do it justice. You can see the trailer here if you like: http://wip.warnerbros.com/decemberboys/.

6) Finally, if you should meet your end in Australia, there is a 73.28% chance that it would be by much more interesting means than if you had croaked in the USA. Those statistics came straight out of my brain and have not been quantified in any form or fashion, but just think about it! In his book, Bryson describes, in great detail, the abundance of lethal wildlife and the myriad of things that can kill you there in the nastiest ways. Whether you go by adder, cone shell, sting ray to the chest (like poor unfortunate Steve Irwin), spiders, crocs, or box jellies, at least it’ll be an interesting story for your family to tell. Is that morbid? Hmmm… maybe so. No one really wants to bite the big one, but if it’s your time… it may as well be interesting.

I’m totally in a state of The Panics!

2008-03-20T22:43:00.003-04:00

This year, at SXSW, on a quest for free beer and a place to kill time before The Helio Sequence and Rogue Wave played their day show last Thursday, I stumbled upon a new (new to me) band from Australia called The Panics. They took for friggin ever to set up - so lucky for them there was indeed free beer. Anyway, they were playing at a day party at a place called the Cedar Door in a large outdoor tent. There was plenty of room to move and get a good view of the stage. As I got a good look at them I couldn’t help but notice that each and every one of the five of them was really REALLY easy on the eyes! What a nice surprise... especially since I had been there forever and they still hadn’t started playing! I thought for sure they’d held boy band auditions and had put together Australia’s very own Backstreet Boys. Much to my delight, when they did start playing, their music was actually good. Of course, by that time I’d had two tall ones and was only marginally capable of paying any real sort of attention! So I scribbled a little something about them in my moleskine notebook for reference later.

I decided to go see them again at a showcase at Fado - a tiny teeny weeny Irish Pub here in Austin - on Saturday. Their slot was at midnight. It was 12:30 am and they were... no wait! GUESS! Yes, still setting up! Punks! Didn’t they know I had been walking all over downtown since 3 pm and standing in crowded pubs, bars, and other makeshift venues all day? If they didn’t know it, my feet certainly did! They finally started playing a few minutes later and again, I was so pleased to hear them. Unfortunately their CDs are not being released in the US at this time but should you want to check them out (and believe me, you should) you can hear some of their songs on streaming audio off of their website. The lyrics to my favorite song by them are below. This song is on my Myspace profile page for the moment... FYI. Enjoy!

http://www.thepanics.com.au/tracks.cfm

GET US HOME - By THE PANICS
I’ve seen his face before
and I wonder what it means
Three lonely figures standing at my door
and one he spoke to me
with a letter from my home
and a fever in his eyes
A chill went through my bones
and I bid my host goodbye
He gave me no reply
I never looked behind

You’ve gotta get us home right now
There’s no comfort in the cradle where we sleep
It’s a land of dark and wide
It won’t let us survive for free

I made my way on trains
through the brick and the lanes
Where the burnt wrecks lay dead on the plains
and it leaves your heart the same
But it must be in disguise
if in this distance is my prize
Well out here sometimes it can play a cruel trick on the mind
It’s playing one on mine
Such a cruel trick on the mind

You’ve gotta get us home right now
There’s no comfort in the cradle where we sleep
It’s a land of dark and wide
It won’t let us survive for free

You’ve gotta get us home
You’ve gotta lay it in stone

Welcome to Texas!

2007-02-04T23:42:00.000-05:00

I know I haven't blogged in a while. I figured it was time for an update. So here it is. I'm going to tell you a little story about how I got to Texas and what my first day was like.

So, the trip from Indianapolis to Austin, Texas takes 18 hours of driving. 18 horrifyingly boring hours of driving with a little kitten in the car who, for the life of him, could not stop meowing despite the sedatives I gave him (at least it was quiet meowing). So I took off from my friend Jaylene's house REALLY early in the morning. Bartleby and I were both upset to say goodbye to Jaylene and her kitty, Sam. I actually cried like a whiney baby for a little while as I drove away in my car.

I left Indianapolis. I drove clear out of Indiana on a route towards Little Rock, where I planned to spend the night. The drive went fairly well! I tried not to get myself in a position that would require me to go in reverse (because the uhaul trailer on my car made backing out really hard), so that took some effort but aside from that the first day was easy. Then I got to Little Rock... Little Rock sucks. Can I tell you why? Because one minute you are driving on a highway in Little Rock, and the next minute you see a sign saying that the highway ends and that you're totally on your own... sucker. I'm not actually positive that the sign called me a sucker... but I wouldn't toally rule out the possibility. Anyway, the hotel I mad a reservation at was supposed to be just off the side of this highway but I didn't know just where it was in relation to the end of the highway. As I was scrambling about in my mind, trying to figure out which way to proceed, I decided finally to just exi, and then I saw it. There was the stupid hotel. I could SEE it... but I couldn't see a way to get to it! I must have passed that stupid hotel 5 times and gone around Little Rock in a loop before I finally got there. Boy was I peaved to discover that I could have gotten there easily on my first try had I just continued driving on the highwayt that ended. What a pain in the rear.

Anyway, I did finally make it. Bartleby (my kitten) and I went inside and settled in. After I called my dad, named my new ulcer after the town I was in, I fell asleep and got a descent night's restEARLY the next morning I was off and driving again. I was out the door by 5 am because I wanted to be in Texas by 2 pm. I needed to get there early enough to sign my lease and get some of my stuff unloaded. I made good time on the road. I signed my lease *quickly* and I got my keys to my new apartment and plopped down on the floor of it with my cat. Boy were we glad to be out of the car! Here's where it gets interesting.

The only people I knew here in Austin when I first moved were my sister and her hubby and 2 kids. My sister is not the type to help you move. She'd ask you why you didn't hire someone to do it, even if you were the dirtiest of the dirt poor. Ha haa! It's not her fault really. She's just not made for that kind of thing. So I didn't expect any help from her when it came to moving my stuff into my new place. And it's a good thing I didn't expect help because she ended up getting a nasty flu and wouldn't have been able to help anyway! So I was on my own. I ahd just driven roughly eight hours, sat through leasing paperwork, and now I had to unload my 4 x 8 Uhaul trailer by myself into my 3rd floor apartment (no elevator). As soon as I got my keys I drove over to where my apartment was and, because I had the uhaul trailer on my car, I had to park it horizontally across a few spaces (there were LOADS of empty spaces in the lot). I had been in the apartment complex less than half an hour, and I kid you not, as I was unloading my trailer, some really huffy, mean little pregnant chick (who apparently lives downstairs) got on her cell phone to call the apartment management office so that she could complain because my car was taking up multiple spaces in the nearly empty parking lot. Keep in mind that I was actively unloading so she couldn't have seen my trailer there without seeing me go in and out of it for longer than 15 minutes. I guess it never occured to her that someone with a Uhaul might possibly be parked that way because they might be loading or unloading the trailer. I geuss not. I overheard her complaining on the phone and when she got off, I explained the situation to her, because clearly the brainless wonder needed for it to be explained. She ket saying "oh that's y'alls trailer? Well, I was just callin it in cos I thought y'alls were gonna have it parked that way all the time!" All I could think was "who the hell is Yall? It was just ME standing there! It was just ME unloading.... really, Mike! You *must* see why I hate the pseudo word "y'all" now, right?

Anyway, I told her that it would really be nice if she didn't continue to try to have my car towed while I was moving in, seeing that I had just driven 8 hours to get to the stupid state and had an entire afternoon of heavy lifting to look forward to as it was. To this day I hate that woman. I know she was pregnant, and I know pregnancy makes women a little crazy, but you just can't blame *that* kind of crazy on a baby. You just can't.

Anyway, here's the real stinger to this whole situation. After I finished speaking to the Texas Bimbo Welcome Wagon, I grabed a couple more boxes and headed back towards the building. I looked up towards the stairwell and what did I see? Some *really* big, hefty fella, almost completely naked, standing at his OPEN patio door (the patio that faces the parking lot)!! Yeah! That's what I said! Eiiiw! There's a big naked guy flashing everyone in the parking lot from his open third floor patio and the crazy pregnant lady was calling the apartment office to tattle on me? That's just not right! There are a lot of things that are just not right around here. But what can I say.... this state is my home. Welcome to Texas, folks.

I'm here!

2006-12-20T19:27:00.000-05:00

Good god that was a long trip. I had to postpone my travel and my start date by a week because I came down with the nastiest cold I've had in over 2 years but I finally made it. The drive took 2 days with a slightly whiney and really drugged up (sedatives) kitten. We were both really tired when we got to my new apartment but, of course... being the only one of us with opposable thumbs, *I* was the one who unloaded everything from the u-haul trailer into my 3rd floor apartment (yeah... no elevator). SO... I still have no furniture. I ordered some at a *real* furniture store this time so they will be delivering it on the 30th. I'm happy about that and nervous about the debt that comes with it but I did get a deal that includes financing with NO interest till 2011. Awesome! I started my new job on Monday. I still don't know if I'll like it or not. I think I'm going to have to give it a full 2 month run before I can say for sure. We'll see how it goes. I've discovered that one thing is for sure. State government employees are just a little wierd no matter what state you're in. Groan if you will Mike, but you know what I'm talking about! ;-)

I'm bummed that I am too broke to go see my parents for christmas this year but I'm happy that this time I live in the same town as my sister and will get to spend Christmas with her and her family. I'm going to go over to her place on Saturday to entertain (distract and hog the attention of) the kids while she cleans up and prepares for her mother in law's visit. Heh heh... I'll bet she is happy I'm here too!

I just got internet access hooked up in my apartment this evening! I admit... I'm a bit of an internet junkie. Anyhooo, that's all the update I have for now. I'm experiencing the usual feelings of lonliness in a new place... and missing my friends back in Indy, but I'm sure I'll have visitors often (you guys had better come!) and I'm sure I'll get around to making new friends here soon enough too. Happy Holidays folks! More later!

Almost done

2006-12-03T20:10:00.001-05:00

I'm almost done packing up my apartment.... kind of. Well... mostly. Well anyway, I'm here and I'm sick of packing so I'm taking an e-mail/blog break to tell you about an interesting song I heard just now. It's called "On the streets I ran". The first three or four verses of the song remind me of life in El Paso, where I grew up. My sister calls El Paso "The tar pit" because there's a certain hoplessness in the more mundane aspects of everyday life there that takes hold and grips some people so strongly that they must really struggle to free themselves from it. Obviuosly not all people from EL Paso feel this way about the city but I kind of did. When I was there, I just always felt like there should be more to life than the limited prospects I saw around me. I miss my hometown sometimes but I think that it's only because I miss my best friends and family... not the actual place. Anyway, that's why the first part of this song reminds me of El Paso.

The last verse of this song really cracks me up... just because the Mozzer can be really hilariously selfish/self centered! :-) I mean really... "Take anyone... just spare me"? Terrible! And I wonder how the folks from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania feel about that last bit! Haa haa!

On The Streets I Ran Morrissey lyrics
Artist: Morrissey
Album: Ringleader Of The Tormentors

Oh a working class face glares back
At me from the glass and lurches:
“Oh forgive me, on the streets I ran
Turned sickness into popular song”

Streets of wet black holes
On roads you can never know
You never have them
but they always have you
Till the day that you croak
It's no joke

Oh a working class face glares back
At me from the glass and lurches:
“Oh forgive me on the streets I ran
Turned sickness into unpopular song”

And all these streets can do
Is to claim to know the real you
And warn if you don't leave, you will kill or be killed
Which isn't very nice
Here everybody's friendly
But nobody's friends

Oh dear God, when will I be where I should be
And when the palmist said
"One Thursday you will be dead"
I said: "No, not me, this cannot be
Dear God, take him, take them, take anyone
The stillborn
The newborn
The infirm
Take anyone
Take people from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Just spare me!"

"You shut your mouth...

2006-11-22T02:57:00.000-05:00

How can you say I go about things the wrong way? I am human and I need to be loved... just like anybody else does."

For those who aren't familiar with Morrissey's music, that's from one of my favorite songs "How soon is now?"

I love Morrissey. Jill and I saw the Mozzer tonight in Chicago. I'm going to be so exhausted for the next three weeks starting right now but at least I'll have some very fond memories of this Morrissey concert to keep my spirits up.

For all my co-workers who may be reading this, on the subject of this blog, mum is the word! I was out sick today and indeed I am very sick but nothing short of the friggin bird flu would keep me away from a Morrissey performace! Especially when it's the only tour date in the United States!

Moz Madness!

2006-11-13T22:16:00.000-05:00

I'm gonna go see Morrissey! [doing a little dance] I'm gonna go see Morrissey! Yahoo!!!

ARAGON BALLROOM
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Door: 6:00 pm @ Show: 7:30 pm

MORRISSEY and Kristeen Young
GA-All Ages

http://www.aragon.com/

It's not official yet... but...

2006-11-09T12:32:00.000-05:00

I recently got a job offer in Austin, TX and it sounds like a pretty darn nifty one too! It’s an Environmental Scientist position at the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) in Austin. Although I accepted yesterday morning, nothing will be official until all of the paperwork is signed and they are done running their background and past employment checks. I am confident that all of it will go smoothly. My tentative start date is December 11th, which means I'll probably move down there a week before and give myself a few days to get settled in. I will probably be in Indiana until the end of November. I'll let everyone know for sure when I get all of the details worked out with my soon to be new boss! I'll be out of town between Nov 23rd and Nov 28th but if any of you want to hang out anytime before then, give me a call!

Sonya

Oh Deer!

2006-11-09T10:42:00.000-05:00

This is pretty funny. Even the wildlife want to get their holiday shopping done early.

Target Wildlife Shopping Spree

Common

2006-11-01T12:02:00.000-05:00

My friend Micha posted this link on her blog a while back. It's a website that tells you how common your surname (last name) is in the United States. Mine ranked 27th out of 50,000. That's ridiculous!

Try yours here.
http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2001/thesweetestsound/popularityindex.html

TV and really good soup

2006-10-23T20:09:00.000-04:00

Ok so the TV part of this blog isn't going to be long. I'm not a big TV watcher (mostly because I refuse to get cable and my bunny ears only get 5 channels) but I do turn it on for background noise when I'm doing stuff around the house and I don't feel like listening to music. So when I got home this evening (after running a LOT of errands after work) I turned the TV on to a station called WNDY because I like listening to tidbits from "That 70's show." The problem with this setup is that this idiotic evening soap called "Desire" is on right afterwards and it seems to be the most stupefyingly horrible show on all of television. Everytime it comes on I have to drop whatever I'm doing so that I can change the channel or turn the TV off because if I leave it on for more than five minutes I swear I can actually physically feel brain cells fleeing the confines of my skull!

Ok, enough of that. Yesterday I made this chicken soup that is really surprisingly yummy (surprising because I just made it with whatever i had in the fridge and pantry) so here it is:

3 chicken breasts cubed
3 medium red potatoes, washed and cubed
4 to 6 peeled and chopped carrots (big pieces)
1/2 green bell pepper cubed
1/2 yellow bell pepper cubed
1 red bell pepper cubed
1 medium onion chpped coarsely
4 cups of water (or however much it takes to cover the ingredients)
2 chicken bullion cubes
1 (10 oz) bag of frozen peas

1 jar of Trader Joe's marsala simmer sauce (15 ounces) to be added later.

Cook all ingredients (except marsala sauce) in crock pot on high for however long it takes the chicken to cook. When the chicken is thoroughly cooked drain out some of the water so that only about half of it remains. Add the jar of marsala sauce and simmer in crock pot on low over night. It should boil down a bit and make a soup that isn't as thick as a curry but isn't as thin as a broth. You can serve it with a little bit of rice. It's awesome.

Ok, I'm off to read my next Bill Bryson book "In a sunburned country". I just checked it out tonight. I hear it's one of his best. I loved "A walk in the woods" "I'm a stranger here myself" and "A short history of nearly everything" so I'm really looking forward to this!

Good night!

National Security

2006-10-23T13:19:00.000-04:00

It's nice to see that the folks in charge of National Security are spending their time wisely. I mean it's one thing for a teenager to spend that much time on Myspace... but the secret service? Yeah...

http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/38768.html

Suffering cat

2006-10-16T10:36:00.000-04:00

So I made a conscious effort to go to bed early last night in hopes of waking early this morning so that I could get some gym time in before work. Things were going great. I was in bed by 10:30, cozy, warm, sleepy... I was out in minutes. THEN 3:30 in the morning rolls around and I am woken up by a sound that can only be likened to the sound a suffering cat makes. I put on my glasses and peered over at my cat in the darkness. He was not suffering. He looked peeved that I was moving around so much but the noise certainly wasn't coming from him. So I started searching around for other sources (hoping that if I found the source, I might find a way to silence it). Well, after a few minutes I realized that the suffering cat was speaking English (in a really rudimentary form). As it turns out, my completely grotie up-stairs neighbor got himself a girlfriend... a loud one.... one with a voice that evokes the suffering of animals. Yeah, that's really sexy, lady! That'll keep him going! Iggg! I feel dirty... not even in a good way. I spent the next 10 minutes trying to find a way to block out the noise so that I could get back to sleep and still leave my hearing open for the alarm clock in the morning. Luckily for me the cat-in-heat soundtrack didn't last much longer but the disturbing mental images (having met my neighbor before... knowing perfectly well what he looks like...grotie!) kept me awake for another hour! I was so cranky and tired when I woke up at 5 am I decided to kill my alarm clock in favor of sleeping in today. Hopefully my neighbor won't get any action tonight. I really don't need anything else to foil my gym plans. Ick!

Secrets

2006-10-13T17:13:00.000-04:00

It's weird... I have plenty of Secrets to send but for some reason, when I try to lay them down on a post card, they all flee my memory temporarily. It must be some sort of weird defense mechanism. Either way, I still find this site intriguing and so I check it periodically.

Post Secret:
http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

BSB-I want it that way

2006-10-10T11:18:00.000-04:00


This is histerical! :-)

Kenny Childers

2006-10-10T10:41:00.000-04:00

I spent some time doing art at Josh Johnson's place tonight and I finally finished the drawing of Kenny Childers that I started ages ago. I wasn't happy with the hair and background so I tweaked it and finished it tonight. This photo was taken before I completed the final step (adding tint to the strand of hair that lines the face at the very top) but it is very nearly finished and the final photo, which I plan to take tonight won't look all that different. Here it is. Enjoy.

Post Art Night

2006-10-05T11:18:00.000-04:00

I really enjoyed myself at art night last night. I was told some disturbing news while I was there... and that makes freindships/relationships a little awkward but the rest of the evenings activities were relatively theraputic. It's too bad that my friend Josh will be out of town the next two Wednesdays. I really do enjoy doing art at his place. It offers a sense of community and there are always other artists around to offer some feedback on what you're doing. Last night's art night was a huge de-stresser and I think that the drawing I did (and some creative cake decorating I did earlier in the day) have really helped me work through at least some of the tension and stress I was feeling earlier this week. I'll post my drawing here. The cake, unfortunately, was nibbled to pieces before I remembered to take a photo. Ooops! Oh well! Cakes are for eating anyway... not photographing! ;-)

Art Night

2006-10-03T11:13:00.000-04:00

I'm going to art night at Josh's house on Wednesday. It'll be the first time in months, since the whole Andy Gilman thing blew up in my face. I'm almost over the Andy thing really. I decided this year that I am done wasting my time on people who can't keep up. I hold myself to high standards (sometimes almost unreasonably high) and I expect people who are my friends to do the same. Why should I always have to pick up the slack in my friendships and relationships? Forget about it! Anyway, Josh is holding art night again and apparently I'm still on the invite list. I'm glad that there is still some possibility that this particular friendship can be salvaged. We'll see how it goes. Maybe I'll create something interesting. My creativity pool has been dry for months. I need out of this drought!

Did I mention that I hate the fact that my life is borderline bad novela (soap opera) sometimes? It's really embarassing. Almost as embarassing as my horrid spelling.

Anyway, for those who haven't seen it, these are a few drawings I did earlier this year and late last year. Check them out. The first is a really *expressive* drawing of Kenny Childers. I believe it was the first drawing I had done in ages, probably ending an art dry spell that lasted about 2 to 3 years. The second is a drawing of Derek Richey that I did for the solo album that never got released. None the less, it's still a pretty good likeness. The third is a drawing I did of my friend Josh. It is more stylized than the others (mostly the hair and shirt). Josh is a really lively person and I think the life that the stylization of his curly hair brings to the drawing really suits him and conveys his personality a lot better than a straight portrait would.

Life Is A Pigsty

2006-10-03T11:01:00.000-04:00

Matter of fact-type lyrics by Morrissey:

Life Is A Pigsty

It’s the same old S.O.S.

But with brand new broken fortunes

And once again I turn to you

Once again I do I turn to you

It’s the same old S.O.S.

But with brand new broken fortunes

I’m the same underneath

But this you, you surely knew

Life is a pigsty (x4)

Life, life is a pigsty (x3)

Life is a pigsty

And if you don’t know this

Then what do you know?

Every second of my life I only live for you

And you can shoot me

And you can throw me off a train

I still maintain

Life, life is a pigsty

Life is a pigsty

And I’d been shifting gears all along my life

But I’m still the same underneath

This you surely knew

I can’t reach you

I can’t reach you anymore

Can you please stop time?

Can you stop the pain?

I feel too cold

And now I feel too warm again

Can you stop this pain?

Even now in the final hour of my life

I’m falling in love again

Again

Even now in the final hour of my life

I’m falling in love again

Again (x3)

I’m falling in love again

Again (x3)

Moz is right. Life IS a Pigsty and I’m afraid I’ve muddied myself again. Things are going to be extremely hard for me in the coming months. I can feel it. It’s in the air. Wish me luck!