the mechanics of it all...

Trevor and I were driving back from visiting my parents when this giant storm came up. It was HUGE, could have been a tornado or hurricane or something. It started getting more severe so Trev (and most of the drivers on the road) were trying to outrun it. Trev started weaving through traffic and passing on the shoulder (I was getting nervous as you can imagine).

Finally we realized we couldn’t outrun the storm so we pulled over under this parking garage to wait it out. Apparently it was a lot worse than we thought because we were both knocked unconscious. We woke up and the whole area was destroyed…it really looked like a hurricane or tornado just wiped everything out. We figured we should probably head back and make sure mom and dad were ok so we tried to get back on what was left of the highway. After a couple hours we weren’t making any progress at all. There were cards strewn all over but hardly any people around. It was creepy. We kept seeing cars just left and people walking down the road. We finally decided to leave Trev’s car because we couldn’t get anywhere.

We set out walking and ran into some other people who had been walking too. They said that they heard on a radio that the storm wasn’t just here, it was EVERYWHERE. They said that people are speculating that it is some kind of attack. Lots of people are missing or dead but no one seems to know what’s going on.

A couple hours later we ran into another group of people who said that there was also a huge food shortage. Not only was most of it wiped out in the storm, but it just seemed to be….missing.

We camped out for the night and then the next morning continued working our way back to mom and dad’s. We ran into another group of people who said that everyone who survived the storm was headed to the coast and there seemed to be some sort of rescue help going on there. We decided that mom and dad probably would have headed there so we joined up with that group and headed to the coast.

The more people we ran into the more information we were getting. Apparently the storm was an attack and alien/robots were behind it. They were implanting robots inside of people but we didn’t know why or how. We suspected that they were inserting them into the remaining food, knowing that people would be so hungry they would eat it w/o thinking about it. It seemed the signs that you had a robot inside of you were rash-like red bumps that when you scratched them little bits of metal/mechanics would come out. A couple people in our group had them already. They didn’t know how they got them or what it meant. We had no idea if the robots were going to take over and kill them or if it was a means to track us or if they would one day activate us and we would kill each other. By the time you got the red bumps they were already so intertwined with your vital organs you couldn’t get rid of them.

We continued on the trail to the coast which became more and more treacherous and a few of our group died along the way. There wasn’t any choice though, it was the only hope of food and reuniting with family. We were only about 3 days away when I woke up one morning and discovered red bumps all over my stomach. Trevor and I were devastated. We still didn’t how bad it really was, but were afraid for the worst. I was really upset and insisted that they cut me open to see if they could get it out, when they cut open one of the bumps they pulled out this mechanical contraption the size of an orange with all these wires and an orange warning cone. There were wires and metal everywhere so we decided to leave it in there in case removing killed me.

There wasn’t anything else to do but keep going.

Within 2 days we made it to the coast but ran into another group of people hiding in the woods just outside. They said that a group similar to the Red Cross was organizing everyone and putting them on ships to take them to safety, but that they thought that they were really the alien/robots who were monitoring the survivors. It seemed that we had to make it onto the boats, but couldn’t trust the workers.

We spent a day observing and figured out that they were organizing people by their shoes. So we had to sneak our shoes in and then sneak us in. We split up and seemed to get everyone on board undetected. I ended up standing next to some from our group and the one girl said that she saw one of her shoes fall out of the container and if she couldn’t get it back in that they would kick her off the boat. I decided to sneak down there and see if I could get her shoe back in the container. Then I woke up.

Mamma Mia!

Well here's another day, another blog. Mamma Mia...discuss.

Ok, well I was going through some old pics and came across one titled "stray puppy" and found this shot of our little Mia girl the day i found her roaming the "hood" of St. Elmo. She was/is such a little cutie but such a punk too. We refer to her as the teenager because she won't do anything unless it's her idea. That goes for eating, snuggling, playing or coming inside. punk. She's also the smartest of the 2 pups. You wouldn't think so since she doesn't respond to any trick or commands nearly as often or as promptly as Zoe, but she understands. oh she understands. She's kind of like Stewie on the family guy...much smarter than everyone else and most probably only keeping us around because it's convenient for her. hehehee. but that's why we love her (we're scared of her). just kidding (she may be reading this)

Mia in snuggle mode... (playing the innocent)

one of the funniest things Mia does is sit by the window at night and growl at her reflection in the glass....hilarious....this is kind of the face she makes...

Well here's the other Mamma Mia in my life...this awesome, cheesy, sappy, glorious movie... and the soundtrack that i've been playing nonstop in my car for about a month. Love it. love it. Abba songs are so cheesy and have the worst rhymes but are so darn catchy. anyway i loved this movie. (Bethany have you seen it yet?!)

well this has nothing to do with Mamma Mia but so what...
as some of you know i've been taking a painting class this fall and here is my current project...to copy a master painting. I've picked one of my favorite van gogh's (2 figures walking in the underbrush)....here's where i am after 1 class....i'm showing it at this stage in case the finished product is a disaster...guess you'll just have to see if the final shows up here...

oh, btw the second one is mine...just in case...oh you got it? oh, ok. sorry.

ok then it is a beautiful fall day so it's time for me to get back to work inside....grrrr. peace out dudes.

observations on the reflection of thoughts...

...and stuff.

Ok, well i'm about a month and 1/2 into my new job at the credit union. Here are some reflections on my work experience thus far...

what i liked about my OLD job (broadcast producer at The Johnson Group)--
-working on creative exciting jobs
-working with creative exciting people
-getting to dress casually
-learning about things like rotoscoping and color transfers
-getting to run over to Greyfriars "during work hours"
-getting to tell people "i work at an ad agency producing TV commercials"...come on it just sounds cool!
-my office-mate Alysse and the other friends i made there
- the fun, exciting, fast paced atmosphere
-my gym membership

what i like about my new job (designer, writer, concepter and overall creative genius at the Tennessee Valley Federal Credit Union)--
-getting to be creative all day
-being respected for my creativity
-being treated respectfully overall
-getting to leave work before 5pm
-developing my adobe skills
-LESS STRESS
-having energy for life outside of work
-the idea of comp time
-did i mention less stress?

Well, there you have it folks. I do miss JG and my peeps there, and i'm not too fond of telling people i work for a credit union (face it, it's just not as cool sounding) but i LOVE having no stress and being creative. Love it. No regrets. Just don't ask me about the stupid shoe-Natzi's.....grrrrrr. No really, i'm happy with my decision. Especially after i talk with Ashlee (my replacement at JG) and hear about how she's been out of town more than she's been in the last month and the "joys" of "K". Yes. I have chosen well. It was time to pass the baton and take the leap into the wild depths of....ok, yea, over the top. anyway. there's an update on me. As you may have noticed my blog is not really a day by day account of my life. So things come out when they come out, if they come out. That's just how it goes. Take it or leave it....and stuff.

I"m a gun-slinging, independantly-wealthy fashionista.

Today after my painting class (aka 9pm) we are heading down to Florida to visit T's family and to attend his 10 year highschool reunion. I am working on possible answers to the question

"so what are you doing now?"

so far i have....

"well after I got out of the pen 2 years ago i've mainly been trying to work my way back into polite society"

"since we sold the business i've mainly just been managing our investments and trying to capitalize on the down turn in the market"

"nothing since i got fired 4 months ago, i was actually coming here tonight to see if i could find a new job with someone, do you know of anything"

"i'm a gun-slinger."

"freelance plumbing. mostly in lower income neighborhoods"

"well i just got back from fasion week in New York and i'm just doing follow up with all of our business partners. I"m really swamped with all the demand for my new line, it's kind of crazy right now."

"yoga. i pretty much live, eat and breathe yoga, in fact i have my mat in the car, i was thinking about doing a demonstration by the door, do you think that would be ok? i've been working on a routine that is an interpretation of reconnecting with people. I thought that would be appropriate for tonight."

"i'm an artist, i specialize in nude portraits of the elderly." (oh that is so wrong...sorry but i'm leaving it in here)

"well, we invested in foreign oil about 6 years ago so we are sitting pretty right about now."

"I actually became a mormon fundementalist and we are looking for a 3rd wife right now, didn't you say you had a younger sister?"

ok, i'm having too much fun with this....back to work.

peace out dudes.

1,000 marbles

i stole this from Jenn's mom-in-law's blog but i liked it so much i thought it needed some more traffic...

this was overheard on the radio... the setup is it's an elderly man talking with a younger man...the elderly man says...

'Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job. I'm sure they pay you well but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. It's too bad you missed your daughter's 'dance recital' he continued. ;'Let me tell you something that has helped me keep my own priorities.' And that's when he began to explain his theory of a 'thousand marbles.'

'You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years. I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years.'Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900, which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime.

Now, stick with me, Tom, I'm getting to the important part.It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail', he went on, 'and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays.' 'I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy.

So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round up 1000 marbles I took them home and put them inside a large, clear plastic container right here in the shack next to my gear.''Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away.

I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life.There's nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight.'
'Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure that if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time.''It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again here on the band. This is a 75 Year old Man, K9NZQ, clear and going, good morning!'

good news and random facts

Porn passed over as Web users become social

By Belinda Goldsmith

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Social networking sites are the hottest attraction on the Internet, dethroning pornography and highlighting a major change in how people communicate, according to a web guru.

Bill Tancer, a self-described "data geek," has analyzed information for over 10 million web users to conclude that we are, in fact, what we click, with Internet searches giving an up-to-date view of how society and people are changing.

One of the major shifts in Internet use in the past decade had been the fall off in interest in pornography or adult entertainment sites.
He said surfing for porn had dropped to about 10 percent of searches from 20 percent a decade ago, and the hottest Internet searches now are for social networking sites."As social networking traffic has increased, visits to porn sites have decreased," said Tancer, indicated that the 18-24 year old age group particularly was searching less for porn. (good news)

Some of his findings are great trivia, such as the fact that elbows, belly button lint and ceiling fans are on the list of people's top fears alongside social intimacy and rejection. (random facts)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080916/wr_nm/internet_book_life_dc

and there you have it, folks.

Camera Phone Camera (phone)

Located in the hidden depths of my mind and visible only within the confines of my camera phone camera (phone) are these little beauties.

Here, my friend, is an inside look at the inner workings of my mind. A glimpse at the photo-worthiness of my captured images. A highlight of the remarkable from the past couple months...here....are my pictures.


this is a tree softly flowing and glowing in the sun and wind. (ahhh)


this is a FREE chair i got from work and then recovered with the never-ending expanse of material i purchased.


this is the end of the 3 hour trip to Ikea, please notice Trevor in the back with 2 large carts of furniture and misc "neccessities"

this is Pat Buckley, creative director at JG, also the poor individual who's rib was accidentally broken. Here he is "supervising" the clean up after one of our Krystal TV shoots.

this is Mia in hard-core snuggle mode. oh and after we decapitated her, apparently.



This is Waikiki Beach in Honalulu. This pic was taken for the sole purpose of sending in a text message to make Alysse jealous. Mission accomplished.



And this is darling Maddie the day/hour she was born.

This is a glamour shot of Mya, my car. Her full name of course is Mya-08-Highlander. some of you will recall that she was named "my-08-Highlander" before i got her. See what i did there?

Thus concludes the tour. I really want to say "Briana--out!" and end that way but it's just too rediculous i just can't do it.