Mt. St. Helens Erupts! That is some crazy messed up shit. I can still remember it blowing the first time and all the ash everywhere when I was a kid living in Portland. I wonder if this is a prequel to bigger eruptions to come?

Switching browsers and Other Such Tech Stuff

So I have completely switched my internet browser from Microsoft Internet Explorer to Mozilla Firefox. And I love it. Firefox is almost perfect and far safer than IE. It took me a little while to break the IE habbit, because it was comfortable and there really wasn't anything else. But I am done with IE now and forever. The only thing that I don't like about Firefox is that when I select a larger font size (cause my eyes suck and my monitor is too small) it always reverts back to the default whenever I restart the program. But really haven't found anything else that I don't like, and I am sure that the font thing will be fixed with later releases. Go try it www.mozilla.org/firefox!

Also recently got a new mouse. It is cobalt blue like Nathan's Dog, is wireless which is the only way to go, and it has the crazy wheel that scrolls from side to side as well as up and down. It rocks.
Wireless Intellimouse Explorer

And finally, I got a new email address. I already had too many emails to begin with, but since I got an invitation to Google's new email, Gmail, and is by invitation only right now, I figured I would give it a shot. And so far I am pretty pleased with it, though I am still a little leary to use it on any websites in fear of spam. It has 1 gb of storage space which is a ton of space, and a great search tool, but I hate spam with all my being and have had to abandon more than one account due to the overwhelming volume of spam I was receiving.

I have been watching a lot of movies, I got a membership with Netflix so I can rent as many as I want a month 3 out at a time. I was sorely disappointed in the Ladykillers with Tom Hanks, but very much enjoyed Man on Fire with Denzel Washington, if you haven't seen it, and like a good action movie, definitely go get it. There is a scene where he duct tapes a guys hands to the steering wheel of a car with his fingers extended, and cuts his fingers off one by one to get information out of him, damn that was cool. I forgot how much I like the remake of the Punisher, and the last Star Trek, Nemesis. My collection just keeps growning I 2 Fast 2 Furious Balde, added the animatrix, contact, armageddon, and Kill Bill 2 which I like a great deal more than the first.

I got rid of my cable and signed up with Dish Network. I get more channels and I get a Dual Digital Video Recorder that works with both TVs and can record up to 100 hours each, which I think is really cool, for the same amount of money. With the DVR and my dvd burner, I will have no need for a VCR ever again.

If I haven't said it before, Nip Tuck, is the best damn show on TV. It is the only show I make a point to watch every week. New episodes are on Tuesday at 10 on FX, but keep in mind this is not a show for the kids. There is a lot of nudity, sex, drugs, incest, graphic surgeries, violence, foul language, and other entertaining adult themes. I haven't been so glued to a show since the first year of Fox's 24 which went downhill after first season. Watch this show!

Finally, I purchased the long awaited, highly anticipated XBOX game Fable made by the same guy who made the very good PC game Black or White, Peter Molyneux. And while not perfect, it is a damn engrossing game. You can completely customize your character. You can get tattoos, have different hairstyles, your face and body will change based on the decisions you make in the game, like growing horns if you are always bad, or having all your hair turn white and you will have a glow and a halo emanate from you if you are good. You will get fat if you eat pies and drink beer all the time, or you can get big and buff if you use a great deal of melee combat rather than magic or ranged combat. People in the towns will react different towards you based on your renown. They cheer you if you are good, or run and cower from you if you are bad. And the music is fantastic, and really fits the feel and mood of the game. Danny Elfman, who has done everything from the Simpsons, to the Nightmare before Christmas, did the score. The graphics are very good, and the over all look is very unmistakably Fable. All and all a very good game, I highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys RPGs.
Anyway that's about all I got for now.

Well I have about 2 weeks to get my grass planted or else I won’t be able to do it until spring. So Rachelle and I both took Tuesday off and worked all day in the yard. We worked all day, I shoveled 4 truck loads of top soil, 4 truck loads of bark dust, and we planted about 30-40 plants and shrubs. And as much as I hated doing it, I have to admit it already looks 100 times better. But try telling that to my aching back, arms, and legs. I will probably only need about 1 more full day of work for it to be done, it is just a matter of when. Rachelle even tried out the sprinkler system, but the heads need to be adjusted cause my drive way was all wet and there was a giant puddle over one of the sprinklers up against the foundation of the house which is not really a good thing. The installer will come take a look in the morning. Tomorrow, we were going to have a neighborhood BBQ which we did once before and had a lot of fun, but all but one of the couples had to cancel. Oh well more pie for me.

So like I haven't written in like weeks, don't ask why, cause I have thought about writing something nearly every night, I just didn't feel like it. So let's see. So, I got shafted out of the Store Manager job, the company brought in some guy from Tillamook, even though everyone said the store was looking much better and was doing better financially since I got there. But oh well, that is the way shit goes.

Rachelle and I talked about it and decided it would be best for our marriage if we did not work together anymore, and we need more money than I was making as a Real Estate Appraiser Assistant/Part Time Safeway Assistant Manager, so we decided I would talk to my Safeway district manager about going back to full time Assistant Manager. It wasn’t that I didn’t like the work, because I did, but it just wasn’t working out, and I always felt inadequate not knowing what I was doing as an appraiser, whereas at Safeway I pretty much was at the top of the heap and am kind of the go to guy for everything. So I told my DM I would like to come back and he was ecstatic, and said he would take me back in a heartbeat. I told him that I would like to go to SMRA (don’t remember the acronym) which is a week long testing/interview/problem solving thing at our corporate headquarters in California that you have to go to before you can become a store manager. But I told him that I didn’t want to move, and that Rachelle had a really good job, and that I liked it here on the coast, and that unless Seaside or Astoria stores opened I wouldn’t take a promotion. He said, “No Problem” that he needed good management on the coast and therefore wouldn’t move me. He told me when 1 of the stores opened the next time I would most likely get it.

So then he asked where I wanted to work, Astoria or Seaside, and damn was I torn. Seaside is like 7 minutes from my house, I can go home for lunch, I can sleep later and get home sooner due to less driving, and the Manager in Seaside is just a great guy who really appreciates having me. Astoria on the other hand, is a brand new store, great people who I have known for many years having started my career at the old Safeway store, plus I enjoyed the change. I was leaning toward Astoria, except for the one unknown, the new manager, and I had heard some things that didn’t make me feel real comfortable. But I ultimately said I would stay in Astoria, because I knew that is where my DM really wanted me to go, and because I think I needed a change.

Within 3 days with the new boss, I was seriously regretting my decision, and was calling my old store manager in Seaside asking what I should do to get the Hell out of Astoria. Not only was the new guy a bit abrasive and overly direct, I was working a lot more hours and later shifts than I would at Seaside, which meant no time with my baby girl and Rachelle. But after talking with my old store manager and getting to know the new guy I decided that it was really too late to change my mind given all the things that my district manager has done for me in the last 2 years and decided to tough it out. It has been 2 weeks now and while my home life is seriously suffering, I haven’t been home for dinner once in the past 2 weeks; I think it will get better. We shall see.

A satirical presidential resume produced by some comically political magazine in the midwest. What's so alarming about it,is that it's all factually based. Do bear it in mind when casting your vote later this year,won't you.

RESUME
GEORGE W. BUSH
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20520
United States

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

Law Enforcement:
I was arrested in Kennebunkport, Maine, in 1976 for driving under the
influence of alcohol. I pled guilty, paid a fine, and had my driver's
license suspended for 30 days. My Texas driving record has been
"lost" and is not available.

Military:
I joined the Texas Air National Guard and went AWOL. I refused to
take a drug test or answer any questions about my drug use. By
joining the Texas Air National Guard, I was able to avoid combat duty
in Vietnam.

College:
I graduated from Yale University with a low C average. I was a cheerleader.

PAST WORK EXPERIENCE

I ran for U.S. Congress and lost. I began my career in the oil
business in Midland, Texas, in 1975. I bought an oil company, but
couldn't find any oil in Texas. The company went bankrupt shortly
after I sold all my stock. I bought the Texas Rangers baseball team
in a sweetheart deal that took land using taxpayer money. With the
help of my father and our friends in the oil industry (including
Enron CEO Ken Lay), I was elected governor of Texas.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS GOVERNOR OF TEXAS

- I changed Texas pollution laws to favor power and oil companies,
making Texas the most polluted state in the Union. During my tenure,
Houston replaced Los Angeles as the most smog-ridden city in America.
- I cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas treasury to the tune of
billions in borrowed money.
- I set the record for the most executions by any governor in American history.
- With the help of my brother, the governor of Florida, and my
father's appointments to the Supreme Court, I became President after
losing by over 500,000 votes.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS PRESIDENT

- I am the first President in U.S. history to enter office with a
criminal record.
- I invaded and occupied two countries at a continuing cost of over
one billion dollars per week.
- I spent the U.S. surplus and effectively bankrupted the U.S. Treasury.
- I shattered the record for the largest annual deficit in U.S. history.
- I set an economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any
12-month period.
- I set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12-month period.
- I set the all-time record for the biggest drop in the history of
the U.S. stock market. In my first year in office, over 2 million
Americans lost their jobs and that trend continues every month.
- I'm proud that the members of my cabinet are the richest of any
administration in U.S. history. My "poorest millionaire," Condoleeza
Rice, has a Chevron oil tanker named after her.
- I set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips by a U.S. President.
- I am the all-time U.S. and world record-holder for receiving the
most corporate campaign donations.
- My largest lifetime campaign contributor, and one of my best
friends, Kenneth Lay, presided over the largest corporate bankruptcy
fraud in U.S. History, Enron.
- My political party used Enron private jets and corporate attorneys
to assure my success with the U.S. Supreme Court during my election
decision.
- I have protected my friends at Enron and Halliburton against
investigation or prosecution. More time and money was spent
investigating the Monica Lewinsky affair than has been spent
investigating one of the biggest corporate rip-offs in history. I
presided over the biggest energy crisis in U.S. history and refused
to intervene when corruption involving the oil industry was revealed.
- I presided over the highest gasoline prices in U.S. history.
- I changed the U.S. policy to allow convicted criminals to be
awarded government contracts.
- I appointed more convicted criminals to administration than any
President in U.S. history.
- I created the Ministry of Homeland Security, the largest
bureaucracy in the history of the United States government.
- I've broken more international treaties than any President in U.S. history.
- I am the first President in U.S. history to have the United Nations
remove the U.S. from the Human Rights Commission.
- I withdrew the U.S. from the World Court of Law.
- I refused to allow inspector's access to U.S. "prisoners of war"
detainees and thereby have refused to abide by the Geneva Convention.
- I am the first President in history to refuse United Nations
election inspectors (during the 2002 U.S. election).
- I set the record for fewest numbers of press conferences of any
President since the advent of television.
- I set the all-time record for most days on vacation in any one-year
period. After taking off the entire month of August, I presided over
the worst security failure in U.S. history.
- I garnered the most sympathy ever for the U.S. after the World
Trade Center attacks and less than a year later made the U.S. the
most hated country in the world, the largest failure of diplomacy in
world history.
- I have set the all-time record for most people worldwide to
simultaneously protest me in public venues (15 million people),
shattering the record for protests against any person in the history
of mankind.
- I am the first President in U.S. history to order an unprovoked,
pre-emptive attack and the military occupation of a sovereign nation.
I did so against the will of the United Nations, the majority of U.S.
citizens, and the world community.
- I have cut health care benefits for war veterans and support a cut
in duty benefits for active duty troops and their families in wartime.
- In my State of the Union Address, I lied about our reasons for
attacking Iraq and then blamed the lies on our British friends.
- I am the first President in history to have a majority of Europeans
(71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and
security.
- I am supporting development of a nuclear "Tactical Bunker Buster," a WMD.
- I have so far failed to fulfill my pledge to bring Osama Bin Laden
to justice.

RECORDS AND REFERENCES

- All records of my tenure as governor of Texas are now in my
father's library, sealed and unavailable for public view.
- All records of SEC investigations into my insider trading and my
bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public
view.
- All records or minutes from meetings that I, or my Vice-President,
attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and
unavailable for public review.
PLEASE CONSIDER MY EXPERIENCE WHEN VOTING IN 2004!

This article explains alot. Rachelle has sworn up and down that she has felt dumber since Peyton was born. I wonder if you lose more IQ with each child born?

Well, I took a little hiatus from my blog. I am still working in Astoria, and although a lot of people think that I will get promoted to store manager, I don't think that I will. Not really sure why I feel that way, just a shitty gut feeling. Oh well, it would have been perfect, but this is reality and nothing is ever perfect no matter how much you want it to be. The bad thing is that I started out telling myself that I wouldn't get my hopes up, but when all you hear is how great you are and how you are the perfect person for the job, it goes to your head. And now I really want it. What I needed was someone to tell me on a daily basis what a piece of shit I am. Oh well, I've made pretty good money doing this. I have been averaging about 10 to 20 hours of overtime each week for the past 4 weeks. And while I have had absolutely no time to do anything else but work, the money has been nice. I think I have actually lost a little weight due to not having time to take lunches or eating during my 12 hour work days. Starting this week I will be making store manager pay which is almost twice what I make an hour currently, and I will remain hourly so it will be very expensive overtime. I figure I will be doing this for another couple weeks. But enough work. I am totally stoked to see my friend Jeremy before he leaves for Japan this month. I think we are gonna plan a get-together with my other friends for a weekend or something, which is something we haven't done for a very long time. I really wish Dannyboy could make it, but that's the shit when you live thousands of miles away. I'm almost finished with the landscaping on my back retaining wall, which means I can finally put in grass. My wife wants to plant seed, but I think I am gonna talk her into buying sod. It is more expensive, but I think I will be happier in the long run. I recently started playing in a poker group. Last week was my first time, and we play every other Wednesday night at a neighbor's house. He built a game room behind his garage with a poker table, pool table, fridge, TV, and a stereo. It was a lot of fun even though I suck at Texas Hold 'Em. I Drank a few beers, played and lost poker, then we played pool until the next game. That's pretty much all I've done in the last couple weeks. Hopefully I will find out soon about the promotion, don't know how much longer I can go on, not knowing.