Greetings Citizens. Ah laundry day. Got to love spending the day doing the clothes.

When I was little, my bedroom was the laundry room. During the summers my Mom would come down and start the clothes while I was still in bed. The sound of the dryer was always soothing. To this day I can't stay in a Laundromat because the sound of the dryers puts me to sleep.

I worked a JV game today. I was supposed to work the Umpire position but I talked the boys into letting me work the Linesman position. They were a little hesitant but consented. I think they were worried I couldn't get my fat ass up and down the field. Plus, I think that they didn't think I knew how to work 'the wing'. But I showed them. I got to work with the chain crew and listen to the coaches. It was a good time.

After the game we went to Burgerville for dinner. I had a fresh Huckleberry shake. For those of you outside the Pacific Northwest, if you've never tasted a huckleberry you don't know what you're missing.

Tomorrow I am hoping to pick up my rain jacket up in Tigard before the rain begins to fall. It looks like it's going to be wet for tomorrow night's game.

Greetings Citizens. Marky is tired, so the posting will be short and sweet. I now have nineteen students in my black & white class. Some students bailed out because of their workload (including the person who brought treats today). The class is manageable and I think they all will do okay. We began crunching numbers today. They all sort of left with the deer-in-the-headlights look which doesn't surprise me. (Marci, if you're lurking, you can attest to what that look feels like)! But I think they are all bright enough to figure it out eventually. I had the students look at and respond in writing to a slide today. It was a Jacob Riis image. They wrote all these silly sentences without saying a word! That was a disappointment. But no fear. It provides me another teaching moment, I suppose. I want them to get used to the notion that they have something important to say when they respond to an image. I think if this idea works out I may get more lively discussions during critiques. We'll see.

Greetings Citizens. Again! the images load with no problems. I must be livin' right.

I had the craziest dream last night. I was playing soccer with Franz Beckenbaurer. He needed one goal to eclipse some record and my task was to feed him the ball to make his career complete. I tried to cross the ball to him but a defender thwarted the attempt. We got it back and I sent another ball across for Franz to head into the goal. He missed but my high school buddy was right there to deflect it in. But on further review it was determined that Cal had not touched the ball and the goal was mine. There was intense celebration and I was a hero. Even Franz was happy for me. Isn't that nuts? I haven't played soccer for years. I probably die if I tried now! I've been having all sorts of odd dreams lately. Every night before I go to sleep I recite to myself,"I will remember, I will remember, I will remember...." The strangest ones occur shortly after I've fallen asleep. Because when I wake up, it has only been an hour or so since I went to bed. I think I read that this is the time that is most conducive to astral projection! I hope so. I want to fly!

I had my digi-non-credit class tonight. It was fun. There are ten students and I am the youngest person in the room. None of them are "Photographers" but they are all eager to learn as much as we can cram into the remaining six hours. Tonight we talked about their cameras and setting things up for success. Next week we start doing some image editing. Hopefully, they can all shoot some images and burn a CD.

Tomorrow my kids at PCC get their first assignment. Two kids already dropped. Pussies! But that's okay. There are four others hoping to get in.

Greetings Citizens. Surprise! The image loaded.

Today was my first day of school. Basic B&W Photo. I already miss not having a T.A.. I have 20 students (actually 23 were there today, including five not on the roster). There are two high school kids. And, thank God, I don't have to have a Teacher-Parent conference! It should be a good class. I just love how they look at me and think, "OMG, what a freak!" It warms my heart.

Tomorrow is digital for non-majors. A little outside my area of expertise but simpler to teach because there are no grades hanging in the balance.

I am trying to get back to my prefered sleeping schedule which means I should have been in bed six minutes ago! I'll be up a 0630. Good Night.

Greetings Citizens. I am sick and tired of wasting my time trying to post images for all one or two of you to see. I've been trying to upload an image now for over half an hour. I'm fed up. Besides, I don't think anyone is looking anyway.

Tomorrow I start teaching. I think I'll bag the blogging for awhile. To all of my gentle readers who have listened to my tirades and offered plesant comments about my work I say "Thank you".

Greetings Citizens. Ah, youth football. Little kids learning teamwork through discipline and hard work. That and screaming parents and coaches who want nothing more than to lay an ass-whoopin' on the other guys. Never mind that the other guys are eight and nine years old. At our game today the parents could not even be on the same side of the field because they shout insults at the kids. It is amazing to me. No wonder kids quit athletics and become druggies instead.... less stress.

Saw Kyle today. Had pizza with him and his foster parents. We caught up on things. Tomorrow Kyle is going with me up to Portland. We'll probably go squirrel around the big city for a while. Go get some good food. Chat. He's been a pain in the ass the last few days apparently. Maybe I can get him to see another point of view.

That's about it. I am nearly ready for Monday. Just need to tidy up some loose ends. And find some of my handouts.

Greetings Citizens. A late post this evening... er, I mean morning! Just got back from pizza and (root) beer with my fellow football officials. We always get together after the games to discuss plays and what-not. My crew's game was a bit lopsided with the visitors winning 56-20. I think we easily had over 100 yards of penalties and the game lasted three hours. It was a long, drawn out game.

Earlier in the day i went to the Senior Center to make sure I knew how to use the digital equipment I am going to be instructing students to use. I managed to get the feel of it. The center has Adobe Elements which is a lite version of Photoshop. I t took me awhile to get used to the differences but with a little guidence from the lab manager I was dialed in by lunch.

Then I had a talk with Smith Eliot (who is the other photo teacher at PCC). We decided to get together on Sunday so that I can see how she runs the lab and classroom. She asked if I had ever taught before. I told her, "No". Aren't I the naughty one?

Greetings Citizens. I spent most of the day working on my syllabus for my Black & White Photography class that begins on Monday. I had a little difficulty deciding what can be accomplished in a 10 week program. Regrettably, I had to take pinhole photography out of the schedule. While I think it is a fascinating and fun part of photography, something had to give. Maybe next quarter I'll try to get it into the curriculum.

Tomorrow morning I need to get down to the Senior Center to make sure I am familiar enough with the tools of Adobe Elements to teach the digital class there on Tuesday. My how it all has snuck up on me.

Both classes are full and I am getting emails to see if there's any extra space. The B&W class has 20 students and 14 enlargers... do the math!

My football game today was a blow-out! What made it worse was the team that was ahead kept running up the score. I hate that! I had two "phantom calls" to call back touchdowns and the score still was 46-0. The losing kids played hard... I'll give them that. They could easily have given up but they stuck together and had fun in spite of the score. Their coach was a class act too. He could have volleyed some harsh words across the field but didn't. He shook hands with the winners as though the score had been close. But I'll tell you this: he won't forget that team ran it up on him and his team. Someday he'll have a chance at paybacks... and my bet is that he'll take it.

Greetings Citizens. As the day approaches to begin teaching again I am filled with fear. Fear that I won't do a good enough job. Fear that I will fail. Fear that I ain't good enough. I am truly scared. I am scared because I know that if I don't do a great job... not just a good job!... that I have let myself down. I have been waiting for this opportunity for two years and on Monday I find out if I can hack it. I'm teaching something I know so I got that going for me but I'm in an unfamiliar environment with a fellow instructor I do not know. It's all pretty scary for me. I think I have a good idea where I want to take the class. Tomorrow morning I prepare in earnest to make it happen.

On a lighter note, my 8th grade football game today went without a hitch.

Greetings Citizens. A rather uneventful day. Met with my friend Dick for a late lunch. Followed that up with a nice motorcycle ride and finished paying for the repair work. Went to a football meeting where Boyd gave me some garden grown tomatoes. Stopped by the store for lettuce, mayo and bacon so I could make BLT's for dinner. Watched Bullets Over Broadway to cap the evening off.

Tomorrow I need to get myself in order! School starts on Monday.

Greetings Citizens. I'm back here after a short journey to another site. It seems there are problems everywhere. Here is the best place for me to post.

As some of you know, I went up to the Emerald City this weekend to watch my beloved Cougars kick the crap out of Grambling. However, their band delivered a big wallop to our band. They were very entertaining. And for as bad as the football team was the band more than compensated for it. There were a dozen of us... most of us were at Ol' Wazzu at the same time. We used to get together every Friday at our usual table and get blotto. Ah, those were the days. Now we're a little older and can't hold our water quite as well as we used to.

On Sunday, I saw my best friend from high school. We watched the Seahawks game and he told me fish stories from his trip up to Alaska this year. Ron caught an 80 pound King salmon. The thing was a monster! It took him an hour to land it.

Today I rode Heidi home. We stayed on the freeway because we needed to make hay. Got home in time to shit, shower & shave before heading off for a jv football game. It was a good game: 28-20 Scio defeating Santiam.

Also this morning I got to see my 1960 Porsche 356B Coupe.What a sweet machine. It should be ready in a couple of weeks. It isn't quite stock but it's pretty close. Right now I just want to drive it! The tabs on the old plates expired in 1982! That's a long time to be in pieces.

you can now find me here

Greetings Citizens... Sorry there is no image today. Not that I don't have one or two. No, this stupid blogger.com site has gotten worse for me each passing day for the last week or so. So tomorrow I begin my search for a new blog source. I'm bailing out of this one.

I was a substitute driver today for M-O-W. I had my same route that I d on Wednesdays so it was a simple affair. I got Amon off the shitter to get his meal. I was a little worried. When a client doesn't anwser or leave a note to leave the meal in a cooler, we have a protocol we have to follow. Luckily, Amon was still healthy... he just had to drop the kids at the pool.

I also had my first scheduled football game of the season. it was a freshman game but was two rival teams. The game was pretty fun. But one of the refs was a little to flag-happy. But there was no real difficult plays and no one got hurt.

Got home in time to make some dinner and watch a Ken Burns documentary on Lewis and Clark. Of course there was an annoying pledge drive during the program. I used the time to read how the people in government spent the day pointing fingers at each other about the crisis in Lousiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. What ineptitude. God help us all!

Greetings Citizens.

My problems with my blog continue. I am having troubles uploading images and even putting text on a page. I may have to find another blog spot if the problems continue. I've emailed blogger.com so we'll see if they have anything to say.

I talked to my friend Donna at USU this evening. She is teaching an independent study photography class in the art department. She's got seniors taking one credit and sophomores taking eight credits and it's basically a mess trying to figure out a grading policy, how to handle critiques, etc., etc.. She doesn't normally teach classes so it is a little daunting for her. I offered some tidbits that I thought might help her and provided some encouragement. She's in a tough spot. Especially when you consider she already has a 60 hour per week job with the university already. (A job outside the department). She took the teaching position as a favor to her friend an assistant professor who left on short notice.

That phone call was the highlight of my dreary day though the sun was shining. I watched the Mariners vs A's game on the boob tube. Made stuffed peppers for dinner then more TV (Miami vs Florida State football game).

I had about six cups of coffee today as I continued to fine-tune my brewing skills with my 1950's Atomic Espresso Maker. I've just about got myself dialed in. I can hardly wait to take it on a camping trip and have lattes in the morning.

Greetings Citizens.

Today I am publishing early. I am planning on watching Sin City tonight. Maybe I'll look at The Order: From Cremaster 3 too.

So I have all the parts for my Atomic Espresso Coffee Maker and I spent most of the day learning the sublties of the machine. I think I have most of them figured out. But some fine-tuning is still in order before I offer a "cup of joe" from this aesthetically pleasing machine to my gentle friends. Right now I am so jacked on caffine I'll probably be up most of the night. That's okay because I'm reading a good mystery book and maybe I'll be able to finish it.

The image that I've posted is from yesterday's photo safari with Mark N.. He made an image of the same scene and I will be curious to see how his differs from mine. (We were nearly standing in the same spot when we each made our photos). Anyone familiar with photo history will notice immediately that a stencil artist has appropriated Diane Arbus' Boy with a toy hand grenade in Central Park, NYC, 1962. The rest of you head-bangers know who AC/DC are.

Greetings Citizens.

Met Mark N. in the big city for some photos and coffee. New images should begin to appear tomorrow. Afterwards, I joined Aaron & Jen for a dinner with a Middle Eastern flair before going to see Garbage in concert. It was okay... not quite the band I'd like to see again but it was an alright show. I thought I was going to have to sit by myself due to assigned seats but Jen came and got me before the first song had ended. There was enough room to stand in the aisle and watch. When the show was over we went to the Virginia Tavern for a drinkie-poo and some onior rings while the traffic thinned out. Then we chatted at the homestead for a bit before I came you to you my gentle readers.

Greeting Citizens. I am having technical difficulties beyond my control.... problems with the images, problems with posting... everything. I can't check my spelling and I can't add a link to text. Something is terrible wrong.

That being said, I have little to say. The president is an idiot who has made a mockery of his own Homeland Security, strumming a guitar as the many suffering people of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama struggle to survive. We can set up fresh water across the ocean overnight but here it takes days. And we'd rather shoot at those trying to help than help ourselves. This is a fucked up world. And to paraphrase a representitive of Louisiana God is pissed off and disappointed in us all.

Greetings Citizens.

Today Mommy & Daddy celebrated 49 years of marital bliss. Pretty amazing.

And the M's won.

And Wazzu won too! They looked a little suspect at times but we should have a good season. Who knows? Maybe we'll be the team to knock USC out of the #1 Ranking.

Went to meet with Sabrina at Meals-on-Wheels today to try and help them figure out which direction they are looking to go. I was of little help.

I also turned in my timesheet for Catholic Community Services. I haven't seen Kyle in a while. I've tried calling a couple of times but he hasn't called back. I don't know if they're out of town one last time before school starts or that I've failed him somehow.

Other than that, the most exciting thing I did today was buy a new hat for football. Ah, the glamour of it all.