This is noit going to work

The Presidents so called $50billion new stimulus idea is not going to work. No way. We are trillions in the hole, wrapped up in Afghanistan still, wrapped up in Iraq no mater how we look at it.

You make this road, rail and runway project for companies to work. Well how many will actually hire new people to do the job? How many will work with smaller crews to make a bigger profit? A few I am sure.  Well actually most.

I have lost the ability to believe this will work. There is a mini housing bubble that was created with tax credits, modified mortgages and "bail outs". Once that little bubble pops you will be able to buy a house for the price of a car and we are all fucked....


and just because

Its Been a Minute or Two

Miami is different. I feel like I live in a different country sometimes, Sue is having a tough time finding work because she is not bi-lingual. Last I checked the map says we still live in the US.

Umm we got a do and named her Dana.

I am just waiting for a hurricane to come along to get my cherry popped. Soon enough I am sure. Its 90+ degrees every day, its a little maddening but I dont mind, beats 30 degrees although I think I miss those crisp winter mornings that is until I experience one again.

Being a grown up and looking for a home to purchase.

This is life right now, and honestly I dont think it could be any better than than.

Dude wheres our car?

So Sue and I unexpectedly parted ways with one of our cars last weekend.  As seen here, it no longer graces our home.  My car had its window smashed in earlier in the day which had her purse, which contained her car keys and ID with our address.  We thought we covered all of our bases that evening by changing the locks on the house, putting my car in the garage due to the smashed window, but nope. Someone came and took it right out of the drive way. There we were sitting on the couch watching TV and I heard the car door shut, thats how shitty of thieves these guys are, I guess they arent that bad though since well the car has not been found. They on the other hand were picked up the next day breaking into more cars, with stolen property in their car some of which was in Sues car before being stolen.

As we have found the Sheriff's Dept does not work with the Highway Patrol so we had to relay the message to CHP that the guys that broke into my car we think stole Sues car and to the Sheriffs that CHP took a stolen car report from us, but no one semeed to get it.

Regardless the guys are Meth heads, meth is a huge problem in this area as we have discovered over the last year of living here. It looks as though the car will not be found, it has been a week and Hondas are big on the chop shop market around here. In two weeks we part ways with California and move to Miami, so I should get shot and my car stolen there. At least I expect it.

Not much going on in the update world. I guess life has steadily stayed the same. Sue and I have been doing a little more exploring as the rainy season ends and the sun is starting to come out more. 

These are the recent happenings. This is a cemetery built up hill with a view of a prairie. Neat, different for sure. There are a few of these old ones like this around.

 

Fern Canyon, really wild. Its a whole creek and the walls are covered with ferns. Pretty lame description. I guess I figure the pictures explain how awesome it is. I stumbled upon some Sea Glass too, they are a rare find mainly on west coast beaches, they were used from the mid 1800's -1940's ish for fishing nets, they are glass balls that held nets together and afloat. 

 

Thank you Matt for this video, absolutely incredible music




Prospects are looking up. Got offered a job in Miami, started my paper work and began ironing out the wrinkles to get let go from my contract early. Fingers are crossed and anxiety is through the the roof. I hope this works out, I need it to work out. This is an opportunity that I can not miss out on.

Just finished this up the other day. If you are looking for something that puts insight in the what makes people become a certain way and then the experiences that change that path for the better or worse this is a great read. A true look into a life of chaos.

This guys life re-defines insane, today he is a speaker for the Anti Defamation League and an AHL hockey coach for the Flyers minor league team.

I picked this up on a whim last weekend and it was totally worth the buy.

Next on my list is:

"No Throwing Stones At You Anymore"

I had a little trip down memory lane today. I was en route to the mall and selecting something to listen to by album title on the trusty iPod. Well I without realizing it picked Glassjaw Worship and Tribute. I have not listened to this about roughly god, maybe 5 or 6 years but some how still knew the words and still got into it the same way I did when I was 21 years old and it came out in early 2002. I remember the times I saw Glassjaw in a club crammed with 4 to 500 kids just going bonkers getting more into the music than you would normally see. Oh what a time in life.

I feel like I need to be some distraught heart broken teenager to enjoy Glassjaw, but in truth I am none of that. Its just really well put together music with honest lyrics of some crazy years in life, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence and Worship and Tribute are stellar albums.

Anyway, not to get all sorts of nostalgic (but I am anyway) it reminded me of living in the Florida Keys, I used to open all the windows on my car and just cruise along the ocean on US1 bobbing my head in the humid South Florida air, Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Gulf of Mexico on the other. It reminded me of a lot that year, of my move to Key West from Albany to live with my father earlier in the year, dropping out of college, going back to NY for Hell Fest in in that damn dirt pit pavilion, joining the Coast Guard, boot camp, moving to Boston and really setting the pace for where I am today.

I can say listening to it now takes me back to a feeling of something different, a feeling of someone who was in their early 20's just beginning life, it reminds me of all the uncertainty that was ahead of me.

Now I am in Northern Cali in the Coast Guard, looking to move back to Florida after 8 years of not. I am more settled in life, content with everything that I have going on. I have overcome a lot recently and am happy with everything I have going for me. Life is a little more settled now, with the exception of the job market as we all have felt, but I have what seems to be some pretty promising prospects ahead of me.

and the jam

Well, took a trip this past week to KC, it was a place I never had thought I would venture too, but as usual work led me there. I had to go to Ft. Leaven Worth for some training for work. I got to admit though the Army has some nice installations...As for KC, I found nothing interesting about it.

Books I have read lately that I suggest to people are My Lobotomy, it is a memoir of a man who had you guessed it a lobotomy in the late 50's, Blink which is about snap judgment decisions and the ways they affect our lives. I promise you this is a solid read and I now think Malcolm Gladwell is a genius. Then there is Too Fat to Fish, the autobiography of Artie Lang, if you havent you must, this mans life was, is and has been insane. He is the modern day Belushi. For anyone into medical things, Hot Lights, Cold Steel is a great one I finished yesterday, it is about a Surgeons trip through residency at the Mayo clinic.

I just picked up The Working Poor which is about the people who work to get buy, about how one financial inconvenience will alter the course of their lives. Its about the burger flippers, the cart pushers and the car washers. I am really looking forward to this, also I grabbed Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead the Frank Meeink Story. This is supposed to be a real good one.

Just some suggestions for the readers left out there in the world.

Today is one of those days where I feel a bit nostalgic, I wish I could be kicked back at home in some shit hole bar with a few good friends having a good laugh over a few good drinks, listening to some good music. While I am slowly accepting the fact that those days for the most part have passed me by at this point I hope to have a few here and there still.


Oh and this song, this entire album still makes a daily rotation for the most part

The grass is always greener and prospects are always brighter

Well, I took a stroll through the Redwoods yesterday and along the coast, this is what I came up with. Every time I take an adventure I find something neat. It was a good day for it, it was 65-70 degrees and sunny. April is right around the corner and fast approaching is the one year mark since I headed out west.

This has kind of been my kick lately,

Glory glory. Its been a bit, but not much is different. Went to Virginia last week for work, had a good time. I ran into some people I was stationed with in the past so it was catch up time. In a few weeks I am going to Ft. Leavenworth for work for a day or two, should be interesting to say the least. I have always been curious about that place.

School is school, life is life and that is that.



Miss my babes on the eastern seaboard.


Read this book if you get the chance. It is worth every page.

1.4% ???

Well the president proposed his annual raise for the military at 1.4% that is the lowest in nearly 4 decades. Why? Sure times are tight and we are lucky to be employed. But 1.4%, thats not much and when you look at our paychecks the basic salary is not much.

What people give up and do is worth 10 thousand times that.

What makes this proposal so insulting is that it is the minimum required raise for a person serving and welfare recipients get more than that in yearly increases. With that said that makes me feel a little low on the pole.

Congress will of course get a nice raise in comparison. Its a little raise for a lot of work. We dont get over time, we work longer days than most and travel often.

Some military funding is already being cut. This year in the Coast Guard our budget was $75 million less than the previous. Now tough decisions need to be made in a service with a steadily growing demand from the public must choose between slashing active duty jobs and getting rid of units, both of which adversely effect the over all outcome negatively.

Thank you very much

"the US Army dropped some peace on the Middle East, a crowd of people just turned away, but I just had to look"

Something about that song. For it being a Ramallah song, most of which are more or less anger filled lyrics or realistic you can say, this is so truthful. Or so I think





This video is a reason why this place is awesome. The coastline has something to offer at every turn

A little history lesson

This is something new to me that I never knew about, something pretty neat about Albany and the people that came from it.

I think I have really taken a liking to this area, I hated for a while but it grew on me. I spend more time outdoors than I can recall.

And a sunrise from my front steps.

Its sights like these at the beaches that keep me coming back for more.

Most times the superficial website makes most days worth waking up. Thank you.

This video almost tore me down, I couldnt even talk in fear of bursting into tears. Thanks Matt B.

Great video, really touching, worth the watch. The little things are so important, never forget it. Who says it has to be another person to touch your soul....

Last Minutes with ODEN from phos pictures on Vimeo.

Hey Fans and Fam

Well I experienced my first earthquake this weekend. It was a 6.5 on the Richter Scale. What a god damn ride that was. 15 seconds of feeling like someone kept picking up my house and dropping. All I could think of doing as I was dozing off on the couch as it happened was to hurdle the coffee table and hold onto the TV so it didnt fall over. It was loud, violent and crazy. No real way to explain it.

Now I understand why these things do so much damage when they hit. Next time I am sure we are going to fall into the ocean.

Well it was aight. 8 days home flew by. Glad to see the fam while it was brief, it was way over due and surely needed.

New Years was a trip. Never have I had someone walk up to me and flat out say "I want to fight someone, I want to fight you" and then proceed to take off in a mad dash down the street. Only in Albany I suppose.

Missed you fam. Still miss you fam. I didnt get to see all the people I wanted.

Peace out East Coast until next time.

My resolution is to play more scrabble