No Time to Wallow in the Mire

This would be Easier if I was a Doctor

2010-06-20T20:42:00.002-07:00

After a long absence I have returned to the Mire! And just in time by the looks of the place. I mean I know its a swamp but its a bit run-down dont you think? I mean shit our banner is even gone. There is no more Sam L. Jackson's big ass face chowing doing on a Burger. I hope that by me showing some motivation and posting here that maybe the rest will flock back to the Mire

That is all

todays horoscope for dave.

2009-07-02T06:46:00.001-07:00

Be precise in everything that you do and give yourself time to critically assess the various situations that you will contend with today. You have a lot to do today and it would be wise to bring colleagues or friends on board. You realize that most of your friends or peers are unable to relate to you in terms of your goals and aspirations. This will force you to re-evaluate the kind of lifestyle that you have adopted and its impact on your future. Your attempts to convince someone to understand your views will end in a battle of words and egos.
---

let's see how that works out, eh?

Ok, so no Davish in P-town...

2009-03-26T12:21:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I'll let him explain, I'm still confused on the matter.

Todays News via Wordle and BBC

2009-03-13T13:43:00.001-07:00

Plugged http://news.bbc.co.uk/ into Wordle and I get todays news, condensed.

Davish...

2009-03-13T09:11:00.000-07:00

So Dave will be in Portland soon, I'm stoked, haven't actually seen this guy since... A long time ago.

Anyways, yeah, Dave'll be crashing the couch for a while, it's good times. It'll be like when Dave crashed the couch at our house in Santa Cruz, except not really at all.

New Ride, with 300% More Epicness...

2009-02-14T14:29:00.000-08:00

So I'm heading down to Ashland for school, United Bicycle Institute. Gonna learn me some wrenching. My sister is gonna give me a ride down there as an excuse to go do some downhill runs in Ashland. Anyway, I don't have a ride back to P-town, so I'm gonna peddle my ass back, and do it in style, along the Oregon coast.

~475 miles and 11,000 vertical feet of quad exploding madness. Oh yeah, 'tis gonna be sweet!

Today

2009-02-09T19:54:00.000-08:00

-over 26,000 people died today from hunger.
-891,123,059 people are malnourished.
-1,132,631,056 people are overweight, and I'm one of them. :(

Epic Ride, Portland Style

2009-02-05T07:50:00.000-08:00

I recently started planning a 3 day ride from Portland, out past Mt. Hood, up to the Columbia and back. 180 miles of cycling awesomeness. My buddy Charles and possibly another guy we met recently, Vinnie, will be doing this ride sometime this summer. I'm thinking June or so. Notice the 10,000 feet of climbing, sweet!

resume communication

2009-01-18T03:09:00.001-08:00

I got the internet back. For the most part. I got the new G1 mobile phone! Its pretty sweet. That's all for now.

Israelis 'shot at fleeing Gazans'

2009-01-15T09:05:00.000-08:00

'Claims have been received by the BBC and an Israeli human rights group that Israeli troops have fired on Gaza residents trying to escape the conflict area. Israel has strongly denied the allegations.'

It's shit like THIS that makes you want to burn flags and break windows. If such allegations are true (which I believe they are), Israel is just as bad as Nazi Germany.

The United States needs to cut ties with Israel, and sanction the shit outta them, let there infrastructure rot, they're people die, then we'll see how many bombs they can drop.

Gove'ment Cheese

2009-01-14T11:50:00.000-08:00

I was thinking this morning, about Salaries for U.S. Congress members, Senators, the President, and other government employees.

A Congress member, gets paid over $174,000 a year. A Representative, gets $169,000 per year. That's not including Minority or Majority leaders extra pay ($193,000), or a House Speaker ($223,000).

If you take say $70,000 a year away from these greedy bastards, you'd end up with a savings of over $37,000,000 per year. That's not including pay cuts for the president either, who makes $400,000 plus a few taxable and non-taxable spending accounts (like the $19,000 spending account for entertainment!).

37 million dollars is a big chunk of change, not government changing, recession busting money, but in a financial climate such as now we need every penny we can get.

While this thinking is obviously not new, I think the current recession mandates action such as these pay cuts.

/semi-coherent rant

Christmas Tree

2008-12-17T18:00:00.000-08:00

Brought the Christmas tree home on the bike, it was pretty sweet, took Joe's Kona MTB as it handles the ice a little better.

Snow!

2008-12-14T10:38:00.000-08:00

I love it when we get snow in Portland, makes car dodging a little more challenging.

I'm Back Bitches!!!

2008-12-13T20:34:00.000-08:00

Obviously I've been gone for a while.

Many things happened in the past several moons.

I got a job as a bicycle mechanic
Then I lost my job as a bicycle mechanic
I sold my car!!!
I built my first bicycle wheel, Chris King, IRD, and Wheelsmith... All the parts were manufactured in the USA, My little stimulus package to the economy
I paid for bicycle mechanic school
and bought more bike crap

Pictures of the bike, 'cause I just finished it this evening...

Red Flags Galore

2008-08-26T17:06:00.000-07:00

K, so I was browsing a social networking site based on movie tastes (pretty cool site, actually). I was taking a look at a potential "friend" or whathaveyou, and I saw this message on his page. (the site apparently posts all your msgs to the person's page you msg.)

If this wasn't so clearly phishing or an attempt to spread a virus, it'd be downright scary for that dude. Enjoy.

"Hello My name is imran am single,30yrs beautiful and lovely,submissive,loyal,honest,caring,lovely,understandable,faithful,sincere. I like your profile and i decided to contact you to have a serious relationship with you even if involves marriage so far there is real love, i wouldnt mind..You can contact me through my e-mail address,sugakineandimran@yahoo.com,i can send you my foto and for us to know each other better and not only that i have something important to tell you. hugs! i wait for your reply through my email sugakineandimran@yahoo.com or hudsugakine@hotmail.com Love from imran.....
hi baby i love you. <====not something you should tell someone WHEN YOU RANDOMLY MESSAGE THEM and you've never even talked before!

So many red flags in such a small paragraph. The first one that stands out to me is describing herself as "beautiful". Anyone who describes themselves in such manner is likely to be severely self centered, in my experience. The picture on the profile the spammer made was actually pretty, but describing oneself as such is very unattractive to moi, never mind the fact it's not the spammer in reality anyway.

Then there's the "submissive" business. I never really got the submissive fetish thing. I mean, there's definitely an appropriate time/place for gender roles to manifest themselves, but to describe your general personality as "submissive" is just sad.

Moving onto the best of the lot, she says that, the few brief descriptions he gives of himself, coupled with the movies he likes, is enough to warrant her "deci[sion] to contact him to have a serious relationship with [him], even if involves marriage". Wow. Just wow. I mean, when you are dating someone it's kind of fun to compare tastes in music/film/art/literature/etc, but I'm not sure that's really the best thing to base your decision to marry someone on. I know plenty of happily 'married' couples (using the modern intent of the word) that have extremely different tastes in many things. But they seem to mesh well together, complimenting each other. At least it seems so from an outside perspective.

And that's overlooking the glaring grammatical errors throughout.

Simply Beautiful. All hail the light capture box.

2008-08-18T18:44:00.000-07:00

via sleepycity.net, a great cache of good photo-graph-isms

"Government Paid Evangelists"

2008-08-17T14:21:00.000-07:00

If this video doesn't scare you, you're probably someone who I couldn't have a civil conversation with concerning religion.

More information on the campus crusade for christ's military ministry can be found here.

(from the group's website)
"Young recruits are under great pressure as they enter the military at their initial training gateways," the group has stated on its web site. "The demands of drill instructors push recruits and new cadets to the edge. This is why they are most open to the 'good news.' We target specific locations, like Lackland AFB [Air Force base] and Fort Jackson, where large numbers of military members transition early in their career. These sites are excellent locations to pursue our strategic goals."

Pursue our strategic goals!?!

Interesting Quotes

2008-08-17T13:37:00.000-07:00

"The really dangerous American fascist... is the man who wants to do in the United States in an American way what Hitler did in Germany in a Prussian way. The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information. With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power... They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective, toward which all their deceit is directed, is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection."
-- U.S. Vice President Henry A. Wallace, quoted in the New York Times, April 9, 1944

I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won't have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be!
-- Rev. Jerry Falwell

Secular schools can never be tolerated because such a school has no religious instruction and a general moral instruction without a religious foundation is built on air; consequently, all character training and religion must be derived from faith.... We need believing people.
-- Adolf Hitler, April 26, 1933

Our job is to reclaim America for Christ, whatever the cost. As the vice regents of God, we are to exercise godly dominion and influence over our neighborhoods, our schools, our government, our literature and arts, our sports arenas, our entertainment media, our news media, our scientific endeavors -- in short, over every aspect and institution of human society.
-- D. James Kennedy, Coral Ridge Ministries and Bush advisor.

A person who is guided by God will never be misguided by anyone.
-- Osama Bin Laden

We’re being guided by God.
-- Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson

No, I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered as patriots. This is one nation under God.
-- George Bush Sr., to a reporter in 1988

via H.E.R.B.
The site's header is a bit hostile toward religion, something I don't wholly endorse (as I believe in everyone's right to freedom of religion), but I do vehemently oppose a theocracy. No state should, in my opinion, define it's society by a religion. Religion's influence on society is naturally occurring and should not have to be bolstered by laws. If a religion is too weak to have support from the common person, then it should fall by the wayside like the horse-drawn carriage.

Many more quotes and some political cartoons, etc. on the site.

-Dave

I'm coming out of blogger retirement!

2008-08-15T16:38:00.001-07:00

After nearly 3 years of hibernation, I'm back. That's right, I found my login info! F yeah!

Chillin'

2008-07-04T20:55:00.000-07:00

Played a little snacky shack.

Here's Lily servin' it up pimp style.

Yerp

Joe

Stall

Lame Ducks

2008-06-20T10:50:00.000-07:00

A good example of a completely ineffective government.

"Congress has effectively given in to the administration, allowing it to grant immunity to any telco. Apparently, all that talk about not allowing the worst of this bill to go through was just talk. It's difficult to know where to begin in reviewing this "deal." It's hardly a compromise -- it's a get out of jail free card."

Link to Techdirt article

The Last Few Days...

2008-06-05T23:01:00.000-07:00

A few photos

To: The Shareholders of ExxonMobil and Chevron Corporations, and All Peace Loving People of the World

2008-06-04T08:55:00.000-07:00

From: Hassan Juma'a Awad, President, Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU)

We call upon the governments, corporations and other institutions behind the ongoing occupation of Iraq to respond to our demands for real democracy, true sovereignty and self-determination, free of all foreign interference.

Five years of invasion, war and occupation have brought nothing but death, destruction, misery and suffering to our people. In the name of our "liberation," more than a million of our citizens have been killed or wounded, our nation's schools, hospitals and other infrastructure have been destroyed, our neighbourhoods have been bombed, our homes have been broken into, our children have been traumatized, many of our family members and neighbours have been assaulted and arrested, our national treasures have been looted, and nearly twenty percent of our people have been turned into refugees.

The continued occupation fuels the violence in Iraq rather than alleviating it. The occupation has helped to foment and then exploit sectarian divisions and terror attacks where there had been none.

The Ba'athist legislation of 1987, which banned trade unions in the public sector and public enterprises (80% of all workers), is still in effect and continues to be enforced against us. Our union offices have been raided. Union property has been seized and destroyed. Our bank accounts have been frozen. Our leaders have been beaten, arrested, abducted and assassinated. Our rights as workers are routinely violated. This is an attack on our rights and the basic precepts of a democratic society. It is a grim reminder of the shadow of dictatorship still stalking our country.

We call upon you and all the world's peace-loving peoples to help us to end the nightmare of occupation and restore our sovereignty and national independence so that we can chart our own course to the future.

We demand an immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops from our country, and utterly reject the agreement being negotiated with the USA for long-term bases and a military presence. Iraq must be returned to full sovereignty.

We demand the passage of a labour law promised by our Constitution, that adheres to ILO principles to protect the rights of workers to organize, bargain and strike, independent of state control and interference and on which Iraqi trade unionists have been fully consulted.

We demand an end to meddling in our sovereign economic affairs by the International Monetary Fund, the USA and UK, and multinational energy corporations, and recognition that no major economic decisions concerning our services and resources can be made while foreign troops occupy our country.

We demand that the US government, oil companies and others immediately cease lobbying for the oil law which would fracture the country and hand control over our oil to multinational companies like ExxonMobil and Chevron. We demand that all oil companies be prevented from entering into any long-term agreement concerning oil while Iraq remains occupied. The Iraqi government must tear up the current draft of the oil law, and begin to develop a legitimate oil policy based on full and genuine consultation with the Iraqi people. Only after all occupation forces are gone should a long term plan for the development of our oil resources be adopted.

We seek your support and solidarity to help us end the military and economic occupation of our country.

We look forward to the day when we have a world based on co-operation and solidarity. We look forward to a world free from war, sectarianism, competition and exploitation.

This is a statement made by the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions on May 28 during the shareholder meetings of ExxonMobile and Chevron. Now my question is, why aren't any of the major news outlets covering this, I think this is big news.

$^&!$ Thieves Stole My Bike!

2008-05-20T11:18:00.000-07:00

They got the RecycloBurningManGrocerygetter Granola Bike. Right out of my carport, maybe I'll get lucky and spot it, or one of the people that I have looking out for it will see it...

In the meantime, F%^k thieves!

Now comes with 100% MORE seatpost!

2008-05-04T13:15:00.000-07:00

And fenders to boot!

Single Speed Grocery Getter/Burning Man Bike...

2008-04-27T19:10:00.000-07:00

Needs a few things, like a seatpost.

Yehuda Moon and the Kickstand Cyclery

2008-04-12T09:37:00.001-07:00

If you like bicycling, and you like comics, or even if you just like comics, check out Yehuda Moon... It's good schtuff mate!

World Rally Championship 2007 Compilation

2008-03-23T11:06:00.000-07:00

My second compilation of the 2007 WRC season, set to Deftones Engine #9

Calling all Portland Looky-Loos...

2008-02-14T05:51:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I'm talking to you Portland Looky-Loos, the ones that backed up traffic for ~10 miles, and for what? An accident, yes an accident, THAT WAS IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION on I-84.

I hate you all, made my commute go from 1 hour to 2, jackasses.

New Bike = Not Smoking???

2008-02-02T11:19:00.000-08:00

The idea is that I'll be riding my bike to work, therefore life will suck if I keep smoking (15 mile ride to work).

Well that's the plan anyway. I was supposed to stop smoking last week, but I had a hell of a time, here's to this week!

Where I spend my days...

2008-01-20T09:32:00.001-08:00

In my cubicle, yes I have CRT monitors, those will be changed to LCD's when I get my permanent cubicle. Also yes I have 2 computers, I support both Windows and Mac software. This is actually the first time I have used a Mac extensively since high school, though OSX is nice (it's basically Linux with a pretty window manager), I could never justify the exorbitant prices Apple wants for their hardware, so PC and Linux it is for me.

Hears the The Internet Stalkers

2008-01-03T22:24:00.000-08:00

Nice try! But look here ____________^_________ I just take a break and everything you say is gone. I hope you have a Great New Years.....(insert sarcaism)........ and on to the Next day :0

New Jorb...

2007-12-26T23:04:00.000-08:00

Just got done with my first day at the new jobby job, so far so good. Though there are things I will miss about working in construction, I think there are more things I will like about tech support (particularly the lack of working in the rain).

Merry Christmas

2007-12-25T11:47:00.000-08:00

Well I know that Im the only lonley loser that checks this blog anymore but This is Just a friendly Merry Christmas message to The Mire.

I am teh awesoming...

2007-11-02T14:58:00.000-07:00

Made myself a pipe, fer umm tobacco of course. All the tools I used are in the pic. I already tested it, and it works quite well!

It is past time...

2007-08-17T19:52:00.000-07:00

...that i make a return to the Mire. Alot of crazy shit has been going down in my life this past couple of days and Soon I will need a place to vent before I burst

Void, canceled, simply annulled.
Endlessly aching, unconsoled.
Life without you, cause without reason.
Touch without sense, time without season.
I face life now facing a cancerous sore,
A sordid parasite that eats at my core.
All that makes me whole, all I hold deep within,
Leaving me lifeless, or at least not livin'.

A shallow face, anguished and marred.
An empty space, scaled and scarred.
Sweetly abiding to a cynical charade.
Secretly hiding 'hind a fictitious facade.
Still, lost within this heart of glass,
This fragile and yet unfeeling mass.
Lies the remains of a love that glowed,
The gift to you I once bestowed.

But honor and pride now bereaved-
By your love for me so misconceived,
Ripped from my inner depths, impeding-
Mind and body and spirit, bleeding;
Now's crushed to sand from thy ruthless hand,
A cold stare I just can't understand.
I feel that somehow, somehow I'm dying,
At least my soul and all that's underlying.

A simple void, is that what I've become?
The hollowed sphere on a pendulum.
Swinging back and forth, emotion to emotion,
Never once stopping, nor slowing the motion.
No reason, no answer, no justification.
The creation of a sterile imagination.
Just passing through time as time passes me.
Merely a nothing- nothing, merely, left to be.
Sightless and soundless, unseen and unheard.
Mindless and boundless, obscure and absurd.
All empathy lying ungraced, unemployed,
I live my life dying, unembraced, a void.

Busy Little Bees!

2007-08-10T14:23:00.000-07:00

Working in Utah, I used this title because the Utah State symbol is a beehive... Damn those productive Mormons!!!

Yay!

2007-08-08T12:27:00.000-07:00

I'm home for a week, it's nice to be back in Portland, I forgot how much I love this place.

So glad to see Steph and Lilly too!

:D

Murray Retirement...

2007-07-25T00:12:00.000-07:00

Clean slab, ready for framers...

After two days of framing...

Taken while hanging on to the forklift from 65' up.... Yes according to OSHA illegal, but god damn, its fun... I can't wait till the crane gets lit up (then I'll be 100+ feet up)

Checking in from Utah!

2007-07-14T12:09:00.000-07:00

Well even though everybody else fails at updating The Mire, I'm checking in from my new home for 3 months, Salt Lake City Utah!

Assistant Foreman Jacob (soon to be Foreman Jacob!)

At the Salt Lake City Jazz Fest

Hiking in the mountains above SLC

My dads dog Hack, I found that hat outside my jobsite, and just had to put it on him. :D

Socks Should Be Predominantly White

2007-05-05T15:16:00.000-07:00

Now thats a short-bus I would ride!

Do you have white socks sir?

Framer Russians?

2007-04-19T17:05:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about that post way back when that Jon did talking about Roof Russians, and got to wondering if Jon would consider my boss a Framer Russian since he is a framer, and he's Russian.

It's cool to listen to him talk, he sounds like Boris the Blade.

I Hate Being Sick...

2007-04-18T10:55:00.000-07:00

It sucks, especially when you JUST started a new job, and have to call in sick after only working there for 4 days. Kinda makes you look like a flake.

But at least I knew I was getting sick yesterday so I told my boss I might have to call in tomorrow. He was pretty cool about it.

Oh and THIS is who I'm working for now, they make some fatty (phatty?) howsezzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Now time for more off-brand Nyquil.

Watch Out...

2007-04-10T09:16:00.000-07:00

Someday soon she'll be driving, and you know what happens when redheads drive!

Bishhhhh! It's a cat!

2007-04-09T17:36:00.000-07:00

Cory and Noahs cat, dave you remember Cory yeah? Anyway just showing off my photography skillzzzzzzzz. They compliment my bowstaff skillz.

Delicious!

2007-04-06T16:13:00.000-07:00

Looks like fun eh?

Propaganda of the day: Boy on skunk cannabis butchered a grandmother

2007-04-06T15:48:00.001-07:00

Boy on skunk cannabis butchered a grandmother
3rd April 2007 - dailymail.co.uk

A teenager who was crazed by high-strength cannabis butchered a grandmother after 'voices in his head' told him to stab a woman.

Ezekiel Maxwell, a paranoid schizophrenic, launched the horrific attack after years of smoking super-strength 'skunk weed'.

The 17-year-old claimed 'gangster voices' from the ultra-violent computer game Grand Theft Auto had set him on a mission to stab a black woman.

He is the second teenage cannabis addict in a month to be found guilty of killing others after smoking the substance. Thomas Palmer, 18, was jailed for life for murdering his two friends with a hunting knife near their homes in Wokingham, Berkshire.

Maxwell prowled the streets with a kitchen knife until he came across Carmelita Tulloch as she walked to her job at a photocopying firm.

He stabbed her seven times, leaving her to die in a pool of blood as he fled home to his family. The case highlights the dangers of the highly potent 'skunk'.

The number of under-18s treated for smoking the drug has doubled to nearly 10,000 in a year and medical experts said the link between it and mental health problems is now impossible to ignore.

Maxwell attacked 51-year-old Mrs Tulloch on September 5 last year after a night smoking skunk and playing Grand Theft Auto.

He believed he was one of the principal characters called Carl Johnson, who carries a knife in the Playstation game, Croydon Crown Court was told.

Judge Warwick McKinnon said it was "a vile and quite senseless killing of an entirely innocent woman".

Simon Denison, prosecuting, told the court: "Maxwell had been planning to stab a woman for seven days, it had to be a black Afro-Caribbean woman. He didn't know why he had done it, he just had to do it."

"He described the voices as taking over his thoughts and his body. They made him do things like cut his hair so he looked more like a gangster.

"Maxwell said in the months before the killing he was playing Grand Theft Auto to the exclusion of anything else.

"He had smoked cannabis the night before, he took a knife from the kitchen and went out to stab someone. After he stabbed Mrs Tulloch he ran home and told his mother what he had done.

"The psychiatric assessment is that he is a great risk to others and will be for many years."

Maxwell lived 500 yards away from Mrs Tulloch on the same housing estate in Kennington, South London. He attacked her within five minutes walk of her home.

The youngster started smoking cannabis and skunk as well as taking cocaine at 14. He had previously been given cautions for possessing cannabis and has two convictions for mugging and assault.

Maxwell said he started hearing voices after smoking the drug and was referred to a psychiatric team by his GP in June last year.

He was prescribed anti-psychotic drugs and his case was reviewed four times. It was due to be considered again the day after he attacked Mrs Tulloch.

Instead, Maxwell went to a police station with his uncle and solicitor and handed himself in. He told officers: "I am given medication for my head and eyes, I don't know why I have been told to take this medication. I have not taken it for two weeks.

"On September 4 I played Grand Theft Auto until late. When I got up I felt a bit unhappy and aggressive. "I went out of the house at about 10am."

"I have a knife with me. I didn't know why I had a knife, I saw a woman, I stabbed her with the knife, I stabbed her three times, there was a lot of blood. After I stabbed the woman I ran home."

Maxwell has since been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Yesterday he was detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act after pleading guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Paul Jenkins, chief executive of mental health charity Rethink, said: 'While there can be several triggers for mental illness, we know that if used by people under 18, cannabis doubles the risk of psychosis.

Professor John Henry, a clinical toxicologist, said: "People are beginning to realise that cannabis is not the puff and relax substance that people used to use."

Studies show there is an increased instance of schizophrenia in cannabis users, in some people as much as a ten-Marjorie Wallace, Chief Executive of mental health charity SANE, said: "This has all the hallmarks of similar stories where a paranoid schizophrenic has not taken medication but has used cannabis.

"Cannabis, especially skunk, can act as a trigger to psychotic relapse in which someone may lose touch with reality and become a serious risk to himself and others.

"We expect the inquiry into this case will reveal the same faultlines underlying many of the 55 homicides involving mental illness each year."

Mrs Tulloch, a receptionist, was married to Prince, 42, and had two adult daughters, Claudia and Andrea, from a previous marriage and a threeyearold granddaughter called Tianna.

Her sister Carol Smith said: "Someone has to take responsibility, how can he commit a crime like that and no one is responsible?

"There need to be regular check-ups for people like him."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ok, so the kid smokes some bud while playing GTA, then goes to sleep. The NEXT day wakes up, hears some voices and goes out to kill someone.

How can this possibly be blamed on bud? He's a schizophrenic! This article is nothing but blatant anti-drug propaganda, pure and simple.

Portland2Oroville2Santa Cruz2Sacramento2Oroville2Portland=1686miles

2007-04-04T10:33:00.000-07:00

Had a great time down in California, though I am glad to be home now. Went and saw my Santa Cruz peeps, they all seem to be doing good. Had some mushies with Stuff and Jess in Sacramento, that was awesome!

Parking in the fire lane at a Wolf Creek gas station, oooh I'm a rebel!

She gets loopy after driving for 5 or more hours

RyGizzle, doin' what he does best!

Ryan, Chuck, and Steph checkin' out West Cliff in Santa Cruz

Flickr Streams

2007-03-25T18:52:00.000-07:00

Had to remove the Flickr Streams as they were screwing up the page, hopefully I'll have 'em back up soon

Viacom VS Google on teh Daily Show

2007-03-24T12:34:00.001-07:00

Goodtimes!

I woulda linked to the Youtube version, but it's been pulled already lol.

Mr. Strategerys Newest Release

2007-03-18T14:34:00.000-07:00

Hehe! New song, check it out on myspace ( http://www.myspace.com/djstrategery ). The song thats titled "Trippin' Balls Ever Since" . Let me know what you think, it's not finished, I still have to clean it up a bit, tweak it here and there, but at least you get the idea...

Bike Build-up!

2007-03-16T12:03:00.000-07:00

So I've started building the bike that my sister gave me, it's gonna take a loooong time to finish it. I started a blog at MTBR.com (Mountain Bike Review) to document the build-up, here's a link>>> http://forums.mtbr.com/blog.php?do=showjournal&j=139

I've been reading about the frame Chelsey gave me. Seems that it is a bombproof frame, which is good, as I tend to be HARD on my bikes.

PAY: Zero and 02/100*****

2007-03-12T16:19:00.000-07:00

Lol, this is awesome...

Update to Dave's Weather Pixie

2007-03-10T08:43:00.000-08:00

Just updated Daves weather pixie to show Houston TX, the closest I could find for FT Bend County was Hobby Airport, which I know is on the SE side of Houston, but close enough I think...
Blah Blah Blah.

You Have Two Choices, One of 'em is Gonna cost you $1000...

2007-03-09T02:25:00.000-08:00

Lol, I just found some old postings from a Subaru forum I used to frequent... The following is from October 2002, about 6 months after I bought my car...

Here's the link to the original thread>> http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=257931&page=1

My handle is Keisatsu...

CupertinoSteve:
BAIC Car Meets are DANGEROUSHey All,Good to see everyone this evening. It seems that our meets are becoming more dangerous (at least to me) ... every time we meet.
My first meet, I was pulled over on the way to the In-N-Out in Milpitas ... exhibition of speed, but no ticket. Whew!
2nd Meet, we go for a little car ride up Page Mill Road and we lose an I-clubber (the one right in front of me).
3rd Meet (tonight), after everyone broke for the evening, Jacob (and his 2 friends) and I decide to go for a little AWD fun @ the Shoreline Amphitheater Parking Lot (all gravel). As we cruise into the parking a lot, I pull over and start monkeying with my setup (I wasn't going to do much in the lot - had too much crap in the back seat ... that turned out to be a good thing). Jacob does about 3 BEAUTIFUL, sliding donuts ... and then I see 4 shadows move towards us. BLING-BLING ... RED and BLUE lights ... oh ****. This is not going to be good. This parking lot is connected to the firehouse ... but has recently become the place to be ... "for sliding cars in the gravel". All of the cops were parked at the far end of the lot ... in the shadows. They were waiting for some poor suckers like us.
Well that started grabbing all of our IDs.
(cop) "Uh son. Do you know those guys in the other car?"(steve) "Uh kinda. I just met them at a car club get together"(cop) "Well go back and sit in your car."
(steve, muttering under his breath) "You ain't got nothing on me. I was just parked in a parking lot"
(5 minutes pass and they bring out the sniffer dogs to bring some "cheer" to Jacob's car)
(cop) "All right, you can go now"
So of course, my car doesn't start up ... during my car optimization (before the cops go there), I unplugged the unichip and now the car won't start. I fuddle around to get it plugged back, before they come over and ask me about my car (and its mods). Now its started and my recently installed headlights (w/ HIDS) won't turn on. And guess how quickly i'll get pulled over for no headlights. I stop the car, pull the e-brake, start the car, turn on the lights (which now light up) and then let off the e-brake ... rolling slowly away.
I felt bad ... leaving Jacob (and friends) to the dogs. I hope things worked out and they were simply trying to scare him. But as I was rolling away ... I heard the cops say "Son, you only have 2 options ... and one of them will cost you $1000". Ouch ...
Jacob - Are you okay?
So after this whole fiasco ... I'll probably still see y'all next week (same bat-time, same bat-place).
Steve
--------------------------------------------
dorifto88:
too much drama
--------------------------------------------
Kostamojen:
What kind of shadows were they in???!!!
Oh, and ive been to two events where something bad happened to one of our cars... and one of them was mine
--------------------------------------------
Andrew:
i got in an accident on the way to the SF photo shoot.
--------------------------------------------
dorifto88:
wha? i hope everything is ok
--------------------------------------------
Kostamojen:
the SF photo shoot was ages ago
--------------------------------------------
H1:
Ah yes, it feels good to have paid my tax dollars at a time like this. The scourge of society that goes to empty parking lots for donut related fun will be several hundred dollars lighter tonight.
Police resources (was it 4 cops or 4 cars?) used to their best effect, waiting for hours in the dark to catch those evil gravel messer-uppers.
Meanwhile people are being murdered and raped on a daily basis, cars broken into, property stolen, and unless you have video evidence that you collected yourself, the chances of anyone being brought to justice for it are ZIP.
Hooray for cops.
--------------------------------------------
CupertinoSteve:
Don't get me wrong. I love cops ... I play on a flag football team with a bunch of cops. But they are cool ...
Anyways ... there were 4 cars and between 6-7 cops. If you come in by the fire station and look towards Shoreline Park (and doggie park), they were hiding to the left side shadows ... all the way in the back. Come to think of it, there was also a truck in the street parked to block all the traffic. So I guess the total count was 5 cars and 7-8 "law enforcement officers". That's a lot of tax payer bling-bling.
S
--------------------------------------------
H1:
You're right, I should ammend my statement.
Hooray for cops bosses.
--------------------------------------------
Diranged:
Wow, that sucks! I'm sorry to hear that. Unfortunately, it seems that:1) Cops are EVERYWHERE right now.. Especially in Mtn View and Redwood City!2) Everyone is at least taking responsibility for their own actions.3) We all need to be a bit more carefull..
Any news from Jacob?
--Matt
--------------------------------------------
Keisatsu:
(I am Jacob)
Heh, what a night...
When he was telling me "you have 2 options, one of them will cost you $1000" he was about to tell me I could either pay a bunch of fines, ooooooorrrr, i could help them train with their dog, let him tackle me, so they get me outta the car and start telling me how to run, what to do when the dog tackles me and then their like "we werent really gonna have the dog tackle you"
Man did they have me going!
Oh yeah, the reason they were in the parking lot is they were training thier dogs!!!
No tickets for me fortunatly!
I love police officers now! 8 pullovers since I got my WRX and no tickets!!!
--------------------------------------------
Diranged:
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAHAHAHA
--------------------------------------------
iBlueVirus:
boy you are a LUCKY guy!!! Good for you bro!!
--------------------------------------------
subarud:
ROTFLMAO!!
That was a great story! All this drama from two perspectives culminate into this great ending!

~Evan
--------------------------------------------
KAuss:
hahaha, what a story this got to be lol....
I dunno, if I was in that situation, I would totally be like tripping since when do officers bargin with someone and let them off 1000 bucks worth of fines by letting their dog kick their ass?? LOL
but cool man, this is a happy ending I guess? I've been avoiding tickets the hard way, obiding by the law...
--------------------------------------------
Andrew:
LOL!!! Hahahah the cop was messin with you bad. I could just imagine the grin on his face when you were taking dives pretending you were being tackled by the dogs. LOL!!
--------------------------------------------
CupertinoSteve:
Hey Jacob,Good to hear from ya ... 8 pullovers and no tickets. You must be the luckiest person on Earth. Hey ... if you're not doing anything, I think we should go to Vegas and use some of the "voodoo magic" on the casinos.
Steve
--------------------------------------------
Keisatsu:
heh,
hmmm, im not too good at cards, ill stand next to you as you play, maybe my luck is transferable...
I think I'm not gonna be trying my luck for a while.... I am so lucky cops are nice to me...
--------------------------------------------
1WRX2NV:
hey guys.....sorry to interrupt....I havn't fished reading the story of what happened, but I know of this great place to practice drifting...it's at the Shoreline Amphitheater Parking Lot.Tons of gravel and NO COPS!!!!!!
We could meet on Sat. night....who's down?
-freddie

J/K ......glad you guys didn't get busted. Cops can be jerks sometimes...and as you saw they "could" be cool.be safe-freddie
--------------------------------------------
subywan-kenobi:
This goes right along with what I've said for years now................not all cops are a$$es. If you're respectful and honest, you have done all you can do to maximize your chances of getting out of there unharmed!! Now, who was it that was arguing this with me in that other thread Too bad the cops didn't ask you for a test slide!!!
Mike S.

El Yay!!!

2007-03-06T19:48:00.000-08:00

Check out what my sister gave me (she actually gave it to me a while ago). Note the original Nintendo in the background (theres a Playstation back there somewhere too!). Joy for me!

Mas Cowbell

2007-03-03T09:18:00.000-08:00

Yes, that is exactly what this blog needs, and I am going to give it more cowbell if it kills me damnit!

That is all... For now.

Hooray!

2007-03-02T12:42:00.000-08:00

Hrm, finally got my DSL up... That took 6 months too long. Anywho, just chillin' at home working on The Bump (see above pic), finally replaced the window seal so now no more leaky windows!

Here We Go

2007-01-17T14:18:00.000-08:00

Well now Im of to see the scary man in the Scrubs so that once again he can poke me and put me in pain. I have My Pre-of appointment at 3:00. Im starting to get a bit freaked out. The reality of the situation is starting to set in now. I might have Cancer. Fuck Me Running! But hey its not for sure yet. So Off I go to get poke and proded and then Iget to set a date for them to cut me....yah....I cant wait....right....

A Sad Day

2007-01-14T17:02:00.000-08:00

Today is a sad day for me....i just noticed that "The Mire" is dieing. I myself have not posted for some time now due to the fact that I have bee really busy, but with the recent turn in my life Im finding nothing but time in the future. I went to the E.R. the other day and Was told that I need to have a Biopsy on my lower Lymph nodes to see if I have Cancer. So Im kinda fucked in that respect.....but back to the point of this post. The thought of "The Mire" going under makes me sad and Im going to make it my personal goal to keep the old bitch breathing. I hope that the rest of you regain internet status and start posting again, but until that happens its all me!!!!!!

Went to a party!

2006-11-12T23:12:00.000-08:00

Went to a party on saturday night. First real party since my 23rd birthday. It was called "horns and whistles" and now that I think of it was my first seattle party since '97!

2006-11-12T15:45:00.000-08:00

since i don't have internet access right now i'll be sending messages from my phone. That is all

Wow, No Updates!?!

2006-11-12T15:36:00.000-08:00

Been of the internet for a month and a half and no updates from you guys, that's enough to make baby jesus cry.

I'm still working in construction, still broke, and still in Portland.

fun facts

2006-10-02T09:48:00.000-07:00

Percentage of students going to college and completing a degree
College participation
Korea 48%
Greece 43%
Finland 37%
Belgium 37%
USA 35%
Ireland 35%
Poland 34%
Australia 31%
France 31%
Hungary 31%
Spain 30%
New Zealand 29%
Netherlands 27%
Norway 25%
Portugal 25%
Sweden 24%
Czech Rep. 24%
Germany 23%
Austria 23%
Denmark 20%
Slovak Rep. 20%
Iceland 19%
Switzerland 18%
Mexico 13%
Turkey 11%

College completion
Japan 26%
Portugal 25%
U.K. 24%
Australia 23%
Switzerland 23%
Denmark 23%
Ireland 21%
New Zealand 21%
France 20%
Iceland 19%
Korea 18%
Belgium 18%
Sweden 18%
Slovak Rep. 18%
Poland 17%
USA 17%
Spain 17%
Netherlands 16%
Hungary 16%
Czech Rep. 15%
Mexico 14%
Norway 14%
Finland 13%
Turkey 13%
Austria 13%
Germany 13%
Italy 12%

Source: National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education

By Mary Beth Marklein, USA TODAY
The United States has made incremental improvements in preparing students for college in recent years, but it has made "no notable progress since the early 1990s" in increasing college participation rates, a report says. And, it says, degree-completion rates in the USA compare poorly with those of other countries.
Those and other findings "challenge the notion that the American higher education system is still the best in the world," says former North Carolina governor James Hunt, chairman of the board of the non-partisan National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, based in San Jose, Calif.

The center is to release the report, its fourth in a series, Thursday in Washington. For the first time, it compared national and state performances with those of 26 other countries in the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, whose members include many of the world's leading economies, such as Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and Turkey.
The USA does not fare well, the report says. For example, although it still leads in the share of people ages 35 to 64 with a college degree, it ranks seventh among 25- to 34-year-olds with college degrees. That suggests that as the large and well-educated baby boom generation retires, the USA faces a drop-off in college-trained workers to replace them.
Though it ranks fifth in college participation rates, it continues to trail other countries in raising those rates, the report says.
Of particular concern, the report says, is the proportion of students who complete a college degree or certificate program. The USA ranks 16th among 27 countries.
The report also suggests that tuition increases, combined with dwindling financial aid, contributes to the flat growth in participation rates. "For most American families, college affordability has continued to deteriorate," Hunt says.
Since the early 1990s, it says:
• The proportion of family income needed to pay net college costs (after accounting for all student financial aid except loans) at public four-year colleges has grown from 28% to 42% in Ohio; from 18% to 30% in Iowa; from 25% to 36% in Oregon; and from 20% to 31% in Washington state.
• State support of need-based financial aid improved significantly in Washington, California and Maryland.
• Gaps in college participation between high- and low-income students persist. In Virginia, 58% of high-income and 14% of low-income young adults ages 18 to 24 are enrolled in college; in Illinois, the gap is 52% to 23%.
• The likelihood of a ninth-grader enrolling in college four years later is less than 40%, decreasing from 44% to 32% in Hawaii and from 45% to 37% in New York.

1 + 1 + 1 = Big Brother

2006-10-02T08:57:00.000-07:00

By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — A little-known federal program created days after Sept. 11, 2001, examined financial aid records of college students targeted by the FBI in terrorism investigations, but it's unclear whether it netted any terrorists, according to U.S. Education Department documents.
The program, called Project Strike Back, was a joint project of the department and the FBI and was created 10 days after the terrorist attacks, according to the documents from the department's Office of the Inspector General (OIG).
The documents were released to USA TODAY through Freedom of Information Act requests. They were also obtained by a Medill School of Journalism reporter working with the Associated Press.
About 14 million students apply for federal financial aid for college each year, the Education Department says. FBI spokeswoman Catherine Milhoan said the FBI gave the OIG "a small, select list of a couple of hundred names associated with ongoing investigations."
Intelligence has repeatedly indicated terrorists have exploited student-visa and financial-aid programs, and identity theft has been a factor in some student loan frauds, said John Miller, FBI assistant director of public affairs, in a statement Thursday.
The FBI asked the inspector general's office "to run names of subjects already material to counter-terrorism investigations against the databases to look for evidence of either student loan fraud or identity theft," Miller said. "No records of people other than those already under investigation were called for. This was not a sweeping program, in that it involved only a few hundred names."
Milhoan said Project Strike Back "was one of many utilized by the FBI to identify potential people of interest. In the post-9/11 world, it's the job of the FBI to connect the dots and follow our investigations where they lead us. We continue to do that while adhering to FBI guidelines, Department of Justice regulations and most importantly in accordance with the United States Constitution."
Concerns sparked program
The program was created, at least in part, because Bush administration officials believed that terrorists were trying to obtain money "from criminal activity such as identity theft and credit card fraud," according to one memo.
The inspector general's office investigates cases of fraud, waste and abuse in federal education programs, including student loans.
Under the program, the FBI provided the department with names of targets of FBI terrorism investigations. The department reviewed its records to determine if the students received or applied for federal aid or if the loan program had been defrauded, according to an OIG statement.
"Details developed during this project will be disclosed to the FBI and Justice Department attorneys," noted a Sept. 24, 2001, memo from Don Reid, the assistant inspector general for investigations to a Boston-based OIG special agent.
The memo notes that the FBI gave names to the OIG on Sept. 24, 2001, only three days after Project Strike Back was initiated — and 13 days after the Sept. 11 attacks. The names, however, were redacted in the memo. The other inspector general office memos, dated April 2003 and February 2006, noted the OIG was continuing the program, but most descriptive information was redacted.
According to a June 16 memo, the department said it ended Project Strike Back that month. About 10 days earlier, reporters in Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism interviewed the special agent who oversaw the program.
Mary Mitchelson, the counsel for the inspector general's office, said the program was closed because FBI requests had been dwindling since the effort's first year.
"We closed it because there really was no reason to keep it open," she said.
Mitchelson would not comment on whether the program netted any terrorists or suspects, nor how many names the department turned over to the FBI. She said the requests were legal because law enforcement agencies can seek an exemption to the Privacy Act, which governs student data held by the federal government.
The FBI's Milhoan said the program was not an attempt by the agency to do an end-run around the law. "That's not our job," she said. "Our job in the FBI is to uphold the law."
Katherine McLane, an Education Department spokeswoman, said, "By statute, the Office of the Inspector General operates independently of the Department of Education and can be called to cooperate with law enforcement."
Education Secretary Margaret Spellings learned of the project Wednesday, said Samara Yudof, a department spokeswoman.
Project Strike Back is virtually unknown within the higher education community, even among top financial aid and admissions officials.
"There was no attempt to conceal these efforts, in that they were referenced in publicly available briefings to Congress and to the General Accountability Office," Miller said in the FBI statement.
The program was mentioned in a September 2002 Education Department report to Congress, noting that it had been initiated. And a May 2004 Government Accountability Office report on data mining noted that the program compares Department of Education and FBI data "for anomalies. Also verifies personal identifiers."
Plan to track students
The revelations come as Spellings prepares to unveil the final report of her Commission on the Future of Higher Education, which has endorsed a national "unit records" system — basically a database that would track students throughout their academic careers.
While supporters say it would make it easier to learn how both colleges and students perform, critics say such a system could violate student privacy.
Speaking to reporters about the commission's work, Spellings on Wednesday said, "There can and should be ways that we protect security — obviously this government does that at the IRS, at the Social Security Administration and, you know, a lot of places. And we work hard to do that."
She added, "Should we protect privacy and security? Heck yes. Absolutely."
Terry Hartle, senior vice president of government and public affairs for the American Council on Education, which represents colleges nationwide, likened the project to the IRS turning tax returns over to the Department of Homeland Security "for possible ties to terrorism."
"Ultimately, this is troubling but not surprising," Hartle said. "It's hard to be surprised when it has become obvious that the government is mining every database that they have. In the war on terror there are no safe harbors where federal data is concerned."

+

By Mary Beth Marklein, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — An advisory commission report sent this month to Education Secretary Margaret Spellings recommends a wide range of proposals related to the accessibility, affordability and accountability of higher education.
In a speech Tuesday, Spellings focused on just a few, promising to convene a summit next spring to continue a more comprehensive dialogue. The aim is simple, she said: "To make sure the countless opportunities a college education provides is a reality for every American who chooses to pursue it." She outlined key actions:
• Expand into high schools President Bush's No Child Left Behind education reform law aimed at improving the basic reading and math skills of children, especially in early elementary school grades. Also, align high school standards with college work as a way to ensure that students graduate prepared for college-level work.
• Increase need-based aid. Spellings offered no specifics, nor did she not endorse the commission's proposal to increase the average Pell Grant to cover 70% of the average in-state tuition at public universities. The average Pell Grant ($2,445; the maximum is $4,050) covers about 44.5% of the average public university tuition.
In a statement, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., urged her to "convince the president to immediately" increase the maximum Pell Grant to $5,100 and address a "dysfunctional" student loan system.
• Streamline federal financial aid, cutting application time in half and notifying students of their aid eligibility earlier than spring of their senior year in high school. Spellings noted that the federal financial aid application form is "longer and more complicated than the federal tax form."
• Provide matching grants to colleges, universities and states that collect and publicly report student learning outcomes.
• Convene a meeting with higher-education accrediting groups this year "to move toward measures that place more emphasis on learning." She says accreditation, the primary source of quality control in higher education, is focused "more on how many books are in a college library than whether students can actually understand them."
A number of higher-education groups already have responded to concerns raised by the commission.
Last week, six national higher-education groups outlined "next steps" on issues such as increasing access and improving accountability, including a clearinghouse of "best practices" that institutions can share.
And the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities are developing a system of accountability that could be used by public four-year institutions.
Other groups lamented what neither Spellings nor the commission addressed.
"The commission should have strongly condemned the decline in recent years in state support for higher education," said Edward McElroy, president of the American Federation of Teachers, which represents university faculty.
In a statement, the board of directors of the Association of American Colleges and Universities said the commission report "does not offer a coherent vision of (what) graduates actually need for work, life, and active citizenship in the 21st century."

+

By Mary Beth Marklein, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Education Secretary Margaret Spellings called Tuesday for greater accountability by colleges and universities, including the creation of a national database to track how well students learn.
She also called for an overhaul of the financial aid process and an increase in need-based aid.
Spellings' plans are in response to recommendations by a 19-member commission she created last year to address mounting concerns that U.S. higher-education performance and costs largely escape public scrutiny. It said colleges and universities have slipped into "unwarranted complacency" and that higher education's financing system is "increasingly dysfunctional."
"This is the beginning of a process of long-overdue reform," she said. "Over the years, we've invested tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer money and just hoped for the best. We deserve better."
The development of a database has been among the commission's most controversial proposals, mostly because of concerns about student privacy. Known as a "unit record" system, it would track the progress of individual — but unidentified — students over time as a way to better assess and compare the educational performance of institutions.
Although President Bush said in a statement that he strongly supports "the thrust of this important report," Spellings will need approval from Congress to implement the database, and she could face an uphill battle. The House passed a bill in March that would prohibit a "unit record" system. Howard McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the House Education Committee, didn't address the database question in his response Tuesday to Spellings' speech but said, "As she and I have discussed, I expect the department to work cooperatively with Congress."
Proponents of a database that tracks students say federal data on graduation rates gives an inaccurate picture because it doesn't account for transfers to other schools. And though many schools keep their own records, they don't necessarily make the data public. About 35 states have systems in place, but they operate as "islands unto themselves," Spellings said.
Spellings said her plan would make information available to parents, policymakers and others in an easy-to-understand format. Data could include students' majors, costs after student aid and how quickly they graduate. To protect privacy, the commission recommended that the database use anonymous identification numbers, not Social Security numbers.
Estimates for the federal cost to create the system infrastructure range from $10 million to more than $100 million, says the American Council on Education, an umbrella group for higher education. That doesn't account for costs to states or to institutions.
Leaders of a number of higher-education groups, including the State Higher Education Executive Officers, say they support such a database. But "the devil is in the details," said Robert Berdahl, president of the Association of American Universities, which represents large research universities.
Spellings offered few details about the database Tuesday but told commission members Monday that she was open to testing such a database as a pilot project, said David Ward, president of the American Council on Education. Education officials said the department would begin with a voluntary, opt-in system for states and institutions.
Ward was the one commission member who did not sign the report, arguing that the commission was looking for "quick solutions." But because Spellings said she would work with higher-education groups, he said, "my anxieties were actually substantially reduced."
But Lee Shulman, president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, said in an e-mail that aside from the privacy question, there has been "far too little discussion of whether such a (database) system is worth creating ... if the data it records is not worth using. Really poor and misleading data is far more dangerous than no data at all."

This helps me a lot more than it helps you

2006-10-02T08:22:00.000-07:00

By Kathy Seal
If you know a teenager, chances are good you've heard her say at least once that she's working on a community service project "because it looks good to colleges."
This phrase is so common these days that it's enough to make us wonder: Do kids ever do anything for its own sake, because it's interesting, enjoyable or ethical?
The blame rests with our increasingly competitive society and the commercialization of the college culture that perpetrates the harmful myth that only a few of the college "brands" are "the best."
"As a result," says Lloyd Thacker of the Education Conservancy, which works to change the college admissions process, "we've got this extremely exaggerated interest in a small group of schools. There is this huge myth ... that this brand will determine your value in life."
Altruism ... with strings attached
There's something wrong when fourth-graders start announcing their first choice of college, and families talk about the Ivy League every night at dinner. Among many middle-class families, this college admissions pressure is creating a bizarre outlook that harms our children.
For community service projects, many kids are visiting nursing homes or tutoring disadvantaged children not out of basic human kindness, but out of self-interest. Rather than fostering their altruism, we're teaching our kids that goodness isn't its own reward, but that good deeds call for a material prize — a slot in a name brand college. We're leeching their innate humanity.
There's plenty of research that supports this point. In one study, University of Rochester psychologist Edward Deci investigated "What happens when you pay people for an activity they enjoy?" He gave college students pleasurable block-building puzzles to solve. He told half the students they'd get $1 for each solved puzzle. After a while, Deci said the experiment was over and he had to leave the room for a few minutes. The students could do more puzzles, he added casually, or read magazines.
Then he watched them through a one-way mirror. The students who had earned money spent less time playing with the puzzles than those who hadn't received rewards. That's because the money undercut their internal motivation, shifting attention onto the reward itself. Dozens of studies have confirmed this effect.
Kids won't grow up valuing acts of altruism if our social institutions don't encourage charity for its own sake.
'Packaged' students
Ironically, pursuing activities because they "look good for college" isn't the best route to college acceptance, at least at the most selective schools.
Admissions committees can tell the difference between a student who pursues activities to "look good" and one who is truly interested, curious and otherwise self-motivated, says Bruce Poch, vice president and dean of admissions at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif. A kind of Botox-freeze glazes the faces of the "packaged" kid, he explains, but the engaged student radiates excitement and connection to the greater world around her. When kids aren't gaming the system, their personal statements will match the picture painted by counselors and teachers.
"Go find something you want to do," Poch advises high school students. "Find what you like, and then you can tell me about that." If kids try community service and like it, they should follow their inner passion. That's the kind of student, says Poch, that college professors want to teach.
Kathy Seal is coauthor of Motivated Minds: Raising Children to Love Learning.

Give me tax money so I can turn around and sell your contact information

2006-10-02T07:29:00.000-07:00

By Kathy Chu, USA TODAY
Despite rising concern about college students' debt loads, the nation's largest four-year colleges are disclosing students' contact information to credit card-issuing banks and earning up to millions each in annual fees by giving the banks the right to market on campus.
A USA TODAY survey reveals that each of the largest 10 universities — through its alumni or athletic association — now partners with a bank to issue co-branded cards to alumni and students. The deals exist at hundreds of colleges.
"They're getting less revenue from state governments and looking at everything they can to raise revenue," says the American Council on Education's Jacqueline King.

The partnerships don't violate any laws. But they're facing more scrutiny because they undercut some states' efforts to crack down on credit card marketing to students.
Legislators in states such as Tennessee have sought unsuccessfully to curtail these marketing agreements. In 2004, the latest year for which figures are available, three out of four college students had credit cards, with undergraduates holding an average outstanding balance of $2,169, according to Nellie Mae, a student-loan provider.
Universities can receive more than $2.5 million a year for marketing deals with one card company, says Robert Manning of the Rochester Institute of Technology. Under these deals, colleges typically give banks contact information of alumni and students. They often also give issuers the exclusive right to solicit at certain campus events.
USA TODAY's survey also finds that eight of the 10 largest universities, all of them public, say they allow other marketers access to student contact information as well under state laws that deem campus directories public information.
Consumer groups worry that these disclosures infringe upon student privacy and that card companies are preying on financially inexperienced young adults.
Travis Plunkett of the Consumer Federation of America adds that some students might get a co-branded university credit card as a show of school loyalty and pay little attention to the card's terms.
Universities point out that it's typically the alumni association, not the university itself, that strikes deals with the card issuers. (Alumni associations typically fund university programs, though.) They also note that the schools' logos on cards help promote the schools.
Kevin P. Hegarty, the chief financial officer of the University of Texas at Austin, adds that UT doesn't want to "block free commerce" by barring students from the university's co-branded card.

Recent Trip to Multnomah Falls w/ teh Family...

2006-09-30T13:08:00.000-07:00

Went to Multnomah Falls with my dad, sister, Steph, and Lily...

Grabbed a few pics while I was there...

My sister and me...

Dad and Lily...

Dad trying to take a sneak photo of me, not realising the camera is on manual mode and is shooting at faaar too slow shutter speed, I like the shot anyway...

Multnomah Falls...

"...at best a dirty trick"

2006-09-27T13:21:00.000-07:00

Plagarised from USA Today

GOP AIDE QUITS AFTER POSING AS A DEMOCRAT ONLINE
The policy director for Representative Charlie Bass- R- N.H., resigned Tuesday after admitting to posing as a Democratic supporter on two liberal blog pages, Bass' office said. Tad Furtado posted messages on Blue Granite and NH-02 Progressive saying Bass' opponet, Democrat Paul Hodes, was a lost cause. Furtado's online alte egos, IndyNH and IndieNH, suggested that Hodes supporters focus on states like New York and Connecticut.
Sensing something was amiss, Laura Clawson and Mike Caulfield, who run the blogs, traced the poster to Bass' office. Bass apologised and said Furtado posted without his knowledge. Hodes spokesman Reid Cherlin deemed the postings "at best a dirty trick." 9-27-06

~*~

OK so I want to hear your reaction to this kind of thing. What do you guys think this does to the credibility of Republicans? Do you think your reaction would be the same if it had been a Democrat instead of a Republican? Personally, I think the biggest distinction between the two is what color they wave. I hate people sometimes. You know what I'm sayin', dawg!?!

My turn

2006-09-24T18:37:00.000-07:00

its my turn to post about how i got a job.
yep

Monday

2006-09-18T04:46:00.000-07:00

Well Happy Fucking Monday tooo you. Its 4:40 in the morning and Im on my way to work in the rain....I just thought that I would wish everyon a Happy Fucking Monday....Just think in 5 days we get a weekend again :)

These Are...

2006-09-14T17:29:00.000-07:00

...Fucking heavy ass pieces of wood, they're 8" X 8" X 12' beams to hold up the next floor on the building (it will be a 3 story building when we are done.

My shoulders are bruised from carrying them. :-

Yea

2006-09-11T16:20:00.000-07:00

So i just got done with the first day of my new pimp Job. I love it so much. I work with a biker who listens to rock at our desk. the only downside is the fact that Its hot in the factory

I too have a New jorb

2006-09-09T02:23:00.000-07:00

I had an interveiw this morning at Hunter Douglas with a guy named Rich. It only lasted 10 min. so I was a bit worried, but then 2 hours later he called me back and Presto Jon is in the Money. Jorbs are the Coolest.

UPDATE: I Have a JORB!!!

2006-09-08T20:03:00.000-07:00

Well, I went to work today at 6:50am and got the job! So now I am building an apartment complex in south-east Portland.

Busted my ass today, my body hurts, but it feels good to be doing something that has nothing to do with customer service.

I Have a JORB!!!

2006-09-07T10:36:00.000-07:00

Well, maybe. My dad called one of his friends and it looks like there may be a spot on a construction crew for me. I have to show up at the job site at 6:50am tomorrow and talk to the boss (Raul, my dads self described best friend).

If all works out, I'll be doing a job that I don't hate and actually enjoy, as well as have just about every weekend off (I've NEVER had a job that I didn't have to work weekends)!!! We all know what that means (having weekends off), I get to go to parties again!!!

Remember those Super Macro Shots...

2006-09-06T10:00:00.000-07:00

This is what I was using to take them, my telephoto lens taped to the front of my prime lens...

Link to the end result
Yes I know the lens is attatched a slight bit crooked, I was using electrical tape instead of the correct adaptor my cheap ass is unwilling to buy.

Another Night of Randomness

2006-09-02T00:50:00.000-07:00

So yes it has been another crazy night of the randomness. I had a couple of drinks and a large group of us went to get some food. Insert random hijinx and crazy humor. We had the coolest server. But all that aside, I think its time to stop this post.

You Better be Careful When You Flog the Bishop 'cause...

2006-09-01T17:04:00.000-07:00

Ahmadinejad Challenges Bush to Debate: REUTERS

2006-08-30T20:06:00.000-07:00

Link

OMG how embarrassing would that be. I mean, you guys remember the last debate Bush was in, "I hear there's rumors on the internets that we're going to have a draft."

You have too.....

2006-08-29T12:07:00.000-07:00

See Beerfest. I crying it was so fun. I wasnt even stoned and I still couldn stop the laughing.So get drunk and stoned and see this move. Or else you will get the Eye of the Jew

Plug for Someone I've Never Met...

2006-08-29T11:32:00.000-07:00

I have been idly viewing Bluesmama's blog for sometime now (I forget how I stumbled upon it).

It's fun to watch her art get progressively better. If y'all wanna check it out, go here

Waiting

2006-08-28T11:24:00.000-07:00

i'm doing a lot of waiting. for a job, unemployment insurance, school?, quitting smoking. money sucks.

The Command Center...

2006-08-26T10:31:00.000-07:00

Steph noted my chair/computer area looked like a command center of sorts with the parabollic antenna (for "borrowing" WiFi).

I love my command center, I love it GOOOOD.

Random Shot of the Mancub!

2006-08-25T10:45:00.000-07:00

That is all.

pokes w/ stick

2006-08-24T13:38:00.000-07:00

...

Home to Portland!!!

2006-08-21T11:48:00.000-07:00

I'll be heading back home today, feels good to be able to call PDX my home rather than Oroville...

Jon, what happened to the DAILY BBM quotes? You're slackin', slacker.

-jacob

BrokeBack Quote of the Day

2006-08-16T23:36:00.000-07:00

Ennis Del Mar(Heath Ledger): Bottom line is... we're around each other an'... this thing, it grabs hold of us again... at the wrong place... at the wrong time... and we're dead.

BrokeBack Quote of the Day

2006-08-15T22:45:00.000-07:00

Ennis Del Mar(Heath Ledger): This is a one-shot thing we got goin' on here.
Jack Twist(Jake Gyllenhaal): It's nobody's business but ours.
Ennis Del Mar(Heath Ledger): You know I ain't queer.
Jack Twist(Jake Gyllenhaal): Me neither.

FLYCELL Update #3 (kinda)...

2006-08-14T17:56:00.000-07:00

I was taking a look at our hit stats and noticed a LOT of people were getting to us through various searches on Google pertaining to FLYCELL.com's use of MYSPACE bulletins (hijacking profiles to post fake bulletins)...

If you are one of these people, sorry still haven't gotten a real answer from FLYCELL or MYSPACE (haven't even received a reply from MYSPACE!)

I am still trying though.

Cheap WiFi Antenna...

2006-08-14T15:27:00.000-07:00

So in an effort to use open WiFi networks until I get DSL hooked up at my new house, I made a rudimentary parabolic antenna to reel in a greater number of wireless networks.

Although VERY poorly made, I now have 6-10 wireless networks to choose from versus the 3 I had without the antenna...

Here's what I'm using:

The purple thing you see in the middle is my WiFi adapter.

Haha!!!

2006-08-14T12:16:00.000-07:00

I'm in Portland now bishes!!!

No, I don't have internet yet, but I did find a few unsecured wireless networks in my neighborhood. That's what I'm using right now. :D

I have to go back down to Oroville one more time, after that I will be completly moved in up here in Portland...

Boooo Oroville, hooray Portland!!!

Study Group

2006-08-14T10:39:00.000-07:00

So Study Groups are the best things ever....You see this is the Second week in a row that a Study Group truned into a reason to get drunk and Stoned. I think that there should be a study group every sunday cuz theres nothing else going on. I love Everclear......

We Had a Thunder Storm...

2006-08-07T02:36:00.000-07:00

And look at the coolness that I shot!

Swimmin' Trip.

2006-08-06T16:14:00.000-07:00

Took a trip to the mountains with Steph. I just had to take the Suby off-road for a bit.

Gotta love All Wheel Drive.

Random pic of a log in water.

Random cow we saw along the road back home.

The road home, I love twisty mountain roads.

Trip to Tahoe...

2006-08-04T14:17:00.000-07:00

Just took a quick trip to Lake Tahoe with Brandon and Chris. They gave me a call at about 3pm on the 2nd and told me they were on thier way to my house to pick me up.

It was really fun, got some pretty good pics of Brandon using the toilet. I will spare you the horror.

Awesome...

From the dashboard on the way there.

Brandon waking up in the car.

Me jumping around all nimbly bimbly!

Look at what I found

2006-08-03T23:45:00.000-07:00

So I was going in to bathroom when I saw somwthing move all quick like, So I look down and follow the movement, to my surprise I found my little friend. He was trying to eat my Face. So Ali jumped up on the table as I "Put it outside"* just like The King Asshat always says too.

*by put it outside i mean I crushed his ass with a shoe and flushed the bitch down the toilet lol

FLYCELL Update #1...

2006-08-02T12:19:00.000-07:00

So after sending FLYCELL.com an email asking them to stop their illegal and annoying marketing tactics, I got a reply, that had NOTHING to do with what I sent them. Fucking morons, didn't even read my email and sent me some canned bullshit.

Text of the email follows:
Thank you for contacting us here at Flycell.
We seek to provide the highest quality in content and service.

We do not show the cell phone number provided as having been subscribed to one of our services. (PLEASE PROVIDE YOUR CELL PHONE NUMBER AND WE WILL DISCONTINUE SERVICE)

Please do us the favor of checking the number and confirming that you are trying to reach Flycell and not another company.

If we can be of further assistance, please let us know.

Regards,
Flycell.com Customer Service

Again, bad FLYCELL no donut!

Crappy Marketing Tactics...

2006-07-29T15:35:00.000-07:00

Wow, I just saw one of the worst marketing tactics evAr! Highjacking of Myspace.com profiles to post fake bulletins that promote the companies product.

Way to make your company look horrible FLYCELL.COM, nobody really thinks that these people would post shameless plugs for a large corporation. It does nothing but make your company look bad!

I do not know the legality of these "profile highjackings" but it would be interesting to find out, as I would love to sue the pants off of this company, if anything for libel as something like this IMHO could damage my reputation.

I've already written to FLYCELL.COM twice asking them to stop. Any good lawyers wanna get involved, as I said before I don't know if this is legal, as FLYCELL could have some kind of agreement with NEWS CORP who now owns MYSPACE.COM IIRC.

The text of the fake bulletin follows:
yo! check out this site to spice up ur phone wit some hot ringtones!! its so ez cuz when u scroll over a song name it plays the tone for u. i just grabbed premiscious and now im rollin wit my girl nelly furtado... and it all took barely a minute. so check out this site for some sweeet free ringtones: http://snip.cc/363!!!!

Bad FLYCELL, no donut!

Ninja Chimp!

2006-07-28T14:32:00.000-07:00


Now all we need is a pirate chimp.

No Time to Wallow in the Mire

This would be Easier if I was a Doctor

todays horoscope for dave.

Ok, so no Davish in P-town...

Todays News via Wordle and BBC

Davish...

New Ride, with 300% More Epicness...

Today

Epic Ride, Portland Style

resume communication

Israelis 'shot at fleeing Gazans'

Gove'ment Cheese

Christmas Tree

Snow!

I'm Back Bitches!!!

Red Flags Galore

Simply Beautiful. All hail the light capture box.

"Government Paid Evangelists"

Interesting Quotes

I'm coming out of blogger retirement!

Chillin'

Lame Ducks

The Last Few Days...

To: The Shareholders of ExxonMobil and Chevron Corporations, and All Peace Loving People of the World

$^&*!$* Thieves Stole My Bike!

Now comes with 100% MORE seatpost!

Single Speed Grocery Getter/Burning Man Bike...

Yehuda Moon and the Kickstand Cyclery

World Rally Championship 2007 Compilation

Calling all Portland Looky-Loos...

New Bike = Not Smoking???

Where I spend my days...

Hears the The Internet Stalkers

New Jorb...

Merry Christmas

I am teh awesoming...

It is past time...

Busy Little Bees!

Yay!

Murray Retirement...

Checking in from Utah!

Socks Should Be Predominantly White

Framer Russians?

I Hate Being Sick...

Watch Out...

Bishhhhh! It's a cat!

Delicious!

Propaganda of the day: Boy on skunk cannabis butchered a grandmother

Portland2Oroville2Santa Cruz2Sacramento2Oroville2Portland=1686miles

Flickr Streams

Viacom VS Google on teh Daily Show

Mr. Strategerys Newest Release

Bike Build-up!

PAY: Zero and 02/100*****

Update to Dave's Weather Pixie

You Have Two Choices, One of 'em is Gonna cost you $1000...

El Yay!!!

Mas Cowbell

Hooray!

Here We Go

A Sad Day

Went to a party!

Wow, No Updates!?!

fun facts

1 + 1 + 1 = Big Brother

This helps me a lot more than it helps you

Give me tax money so I can turn around and sell your contact information

Recent Trip to Multnomah Falls w/ teh Family...

"...at best a dirty trick"

My turn

Monday

These Are...

Yea

I too have a New jorb

UPDATE: I Have a JORB!!!

I Have a JORB!!!

Remember those Super Macro Shots...

Another Night of Randomness

You Better be Careful When You Flog the Bishop 'cause...

Ahmadinejad Challenges Bush to Debate: REUTERS

$^&!$ Thieves Stole My Bike!