When you had to, like my dad, walk 14 miles to school each day round trip, uphill BOTH ways on never a nice day, to a one-room school house.

This after he had milked twenty-seven cows, strung a mile of barbed wire and plowed two acres by flashlight behind Ol Rivers the family Mule.

You remember those days ... don’tcha?

Every now and then I will remember them when my four year old grandchild climbs up in my lap and says “Tell me a story about the olden days Grandpa.” Then it all comes rushing back, the seat on a bucket in the high-chair-step-ladder in the kitchen, and the home style haircut that dad used to give me to save .75 cents.

A haircut that was so bad that it made me cry when the kids at school laughed at me the next day. The afternoon sitting at the kitchen table “writing my words” on the paper with big lines and a pencil.

Reading the newspaper to my mama when she cooked supper because my teacher sent a note home that said “Donnie isn’t reading very good, he needs a lot of work.” Learning how to do fractions and homework instead of going outside to play with the dog.

No daycare in the fifties … Back in those days … You raised YOUR kid. Someone else did not it.  It was your JOB ... It was expected of YOU.

Kids today have it good, they are too soft, and we are turning them into non functioning dummies. Video gaming, text messaging (which butchers the language brutally), and an age of convenient shortcuts. Cell phones, cheat sheets, calculators, computers.

The short road to oblivion.

In my 19 --- none on your business --- school photo album I see all the pictures of the generation that was going to change it all. Glancing thru my old classmates book I see seven future doctors, two Nobel Prize Winners, three preachers, two generals and one of the first female airline pilots. Missing are lying senators, presidents, bankrupt savings and loan officers, stock merchants, very few rotten apples in the entire bunch.

Why? Because they slapped the crap out of us in those days and they MADE US learn something, they forced us to take something with us on our journey thru puberty. If you were a problem, they didn’t cut you loose at the end of the day, you got detention. You paid for your sins.

They made us learn how to read.

It used to be “if you got into trouble at school, you were in trouble at home. And I mean BEFORE you got home” now days it just isn’t so. So now you know why eight out of ten American high school graduates cannot even make change for a dollar, because they never had the daylights’ beat out of them in the primary grades that is why. Why kids in Eastern/Western Europe, Japan and most of Asia kick our butts in just about any type of scholarly competition.

When you do not learn, then you are doomed to a lifetime of Anger Management classes at the local family health clinic, instead of being a productive citizen and family maker. Having virtually no education disables a kid before they even have a shot at the American Dream, that is, what is left of it these days.

We have a society being run increasing by dysfunctional illiterates and we have no one to blame but ourselves.  Our neglect of our young is now our curse

The sixties were very good to me, so therefore, I can understand our President who frequently speaks in terms of often-mocked malapropisms that could stem from dyslexia, or a lack of education in his youth. He certain seems to have his share of problems forming and processing words or sentences.

But when you stop to think about it, he doesn’t need to be big on language, he is after all from Texas.

So when he says something like: “We brung some dead deer parts that Cheney shot to Aunt Martha’s place and she showed us how to stew ‘em in this big pot and then we gorged ourselves on them to excess” that is wrong.

But it sounds much better than “bursting.”

In closing I must admit that I haven’t a clue on the use of the split infinitive, I might have known it at one time or another, but like I have said before, “The sixties were really good to me” and that is my only proffered excuse at this time.

Today I find myself thankful that I can read, I do have a command of the language, and I can thank my teachers, my parents for that. Also, I am just glad that my current social status in this life, doesn’t require me to have a “power vocabulary, do simple math, dress for success or to live in Texas.”

Got to go! I am late for my class on Pumpkin Carving for the Criminally Insane.

000

So browsing the web earlier tonight I came across a cool website that allows you to create your own shirt company and sell them online. The site is: www.spreadshirt.com, and its free to signup...Definitely a cool web 2.0 business . You may have also heard of threadless.com, a cool new site that allows users to create there own designs for t-shirts and then have them sold for a month if selected.

Anyhow, 2 Cool sites to check out when you have a chance. But check out the site I came across on spreadshirt...headyteddy.spreadshirt.com, The store showcases custom made marijuana hooded sweatshirts, some tie-dye t-shirts, and other random t-shirt designs. Maybe theres someone out there who wants to buy niche items such as the ones heres.... what do you think?

Well, that aside. This morning, I went swimming with S____a and Yy. (sorry I can't mention their names, lest I get sued). We swam till it started raining so went to bathe instead. Then I went home to change and get my stuffs to go to school, before going back to J8 to meet S____a and Yy for lunch again. (Yea I'm really sorry I can't mention their names) I then went to school for Physics lecture.

Got back our papers 2 and 3. Didn't do well. Oh well. But J___s did quite well. Congrats la. Think A_h and K_____h G. will top the class again. (YES I know it's getting irritating but as I mentioned, I really can't mention any names here!) I don't have free "pw periods" already. Oh well. Nevermind. Cos we have to do some extra papers. It's okay!

Anyway, it was my grandpa's belated birthday celebration yesterday. I wanted to post the picture but I have to blur everyone's faces(otherwise I might get sued) so what's the point of posting right? Might as well forget it. So nevermind! I was so full! Yum yum.

I'm so scared okay. That I might get sued or something like that. Because I put ppl's names and pics on my wp. OMG. Damn scary. So from today on, no names and pics on my blog. J____e! You better be careful! You post so many ppl's pics on your xanga. Later they sue you okay. And you might cause discomfort to them too. Oh and stop mentioning ppl's names too! Yea. Take a leaf from my book :)

Oh anw, I was messaging Y_ Q__g today! So long nv talk to her already. Haha. Was telling her S____a and I saw M__ G__, our ex-teacher at J8! What a coincidence! I don't wanna risk mentioning her name so yea. Sekali she come and pester me =/ or worse, sue me! Ahh. It sucks not being able to mention names but for the greater good, I won't. :)

Well, I have to be careful and watch my back right? I mean no one can cover my backside other than myself. So from today onwards, a cautious approach! Yupp yupp. Oh and anw, I heard there is a new mountain. And that it was built out of a molehill. Yea. Phenomenal! Oh but it looks a little... Un-mountain like. NVM. :)

Actually I'm surprised there is/are still people still living in the stone/dinosaur/ice age. Haha yea. There really is/are! I'm not kidding ok. Take for eg _____. She is a living example. Way to go! Ridiculously funny, very apt, very apt. Heh.

Oh and if you feel you need to stimulate your brains a little, try filling in the blanks above! To find out what really happened, you can try reading between lines. Or if you prefer taking the easy way out, come ask me. I would gladly answer your queries(I suppose) :)

After a couple of weeks off work, it wasn't until yesterday that I've been able to confirm the details of what happened. So, here's the update and some clarifications to the events that unfolded.

I previously stated that the couple came back into the store the following week to refund the delivery fee and take it home themselves. Well, after further investigation, it appears a couple did return to the store.... but rather than being the wife and her husband as I was previously led to believe, it was actually the wife and her brother (or brother-in-law). The story makes a little bit more sense now in that the wife's reasoning for taking the TV and refunding the $60 delivery fee was so that it could be a surprise for her husband, who although knew the TV had been bought, was expecting its delivery on Monday/Tuesday. He was at work that day, and she wished to treat him to a happy surprise, finding his new TV all set up and ready for use upon returning from work. Her decision was also propelled by the fact that they were apparently holding a dinner-party that night too.

I've heard from the managers and staff that were working on the Saturday when she returned to the store, that she was hysterical - "she was on the floor crying, as if she had just lost a child". I really don't blame her. She asked for a replacement, but was obviously let down when she was informed that things like that can't be done.

The icing on the cake here, was that she returned the next day to ask if anyone had returned her missing stolen Sony LCD TV.

Imagine her having to answer to her husband that night, when he asks what she got up to during the day while he was at work....!? I smell fireworks.... and not the good kind :( I really do hope that things pick up for these guys soon.

I tried to use these yesterday and was woefully disappointed to find that although they fit perfectly well between the camera and my Nikkor 50mm 1.4f lens, my D80 just wouldn't take a picture. I'd push the shutter-release button and... nothing would happen. I went to bed soon after, tired and mildly irritated.

Today, I actually figured out that to get the D80 to take a photo with these tubes, you need to set the camera to full-manual mode (designated by M). Silly me. So, today I actually got to take some of those macro photos. Considering that I didn't really have a good subject, they still turned out not-sucky. I've uploaded a few images here.

Here's some photos of the tubes and what they do. Keep in mind that there are actually three tubes of increasing sizes, but in the photos below I have them all hooked up together, to maximize the effect.

This is the lens I am currently using.

This is the lens with the tubes attached.

These are the tubes themselves. Notice that they're empty - they have no optical elements - their whole purpose is to move the lens away from the focal plane.

A note on using cheap extension tubes

If you go the eBay route and buy extension tubes for 4$, understand what you are getting. These tubes will not allow you to control your lens from the camera, it will become a fully-manual lens. This means that the focus and aperture will have to be set manually. Also, metering will probably be disabled. I understand that the higher-range Nikon's can meter even when using these tubes, but my D80 cannot.

In my case, I've had some difficulty with a completely manual lens and camera, but it's not a big deal. The main reason for that is that the lens I am using was originally (1986?) designed to be completely manual, so it has the focus and aperture controls on it.

The lens I used to take these photos (18-200mm VR), however, is a more recent lens that only offers CPU-controlled aperture control. The downside of this is that when the lens is not connected to a camera, it "defaults" to its smallest aperture. What this means is that if I want to use the VR lens, I have to look at a scene through a tiny hole, making it harder to focus (the dimmer the image, the harder it is to tell when parts are in focus or not). With my 50mm lens, I set the aperture to a whopping 1.4f, focus on the subject, downshift to 16f and take the photo (for greater depth of field).

The upside of the whole thing is that I can spend 10$ on these tubes and have the option of macro photography. I could have gone all the way with the "official" solution from Nikon, but theirs isn't perfect either: the rings Nikon sells do not support auto-focus (and that's at their extortionist prices). Kenko sells rings that do support auto-focus, but they're still expensive, costing 170$ for the same increase in focal distance. I'm not moving to 100% macro photography (and if I was, I'd just get a dedicated macro lens), so the 10$ solution is fine with me.

Well, it's almost fine with me. I'm thinking of trying out this reversing ring. It basically allows me to flip the lens and attach it "backwards". We'll see how that goes. It's also around 10$ on eBay.

Of course, at some point (read: when I can afford to), I'll probably just get a dedicated macro lens and call it a day. But, until then, here's to cheap experimenting.

Watch Another Stakeout and you'll see what I mean!

PS. Strangely enough, Richard Dreyfuss is slated to play Dick Cheney in a future film. Perhaps he should hold out for John McCain: The Movie.

Consequence feat. GLC and Really Doe -Disperse

Unsere Schwesterfirma Chili wurde sofort als neue Besitzerin dieser Pflanze auserkoren und man stellte sie in den Eingangsbereich, wo sie Kunden und Arbeiter mit ihrer Anwesenheit beglückte. Holder Chili-Strauch, so frisch und fruchtig... und weil er so gut aussah, hat man sich auch schnell so an seine Anwesenheit gewohnt, dass man nicht mehr daran dachte, ihm Wasser zu geben....

Jetzt vegetiert die orange Schönheit auf meinem Fenstersims dahin, wird jeden Morgen von mir ersäuft und gehätschelt und bekommt von mir Mut zu gesprochen... (was sich etwa so anhört: "Wenn du mir Abkratzt, du dummes Ding, dann werde ich dir die verdorrten Blätter eigenhändig und einzeln ausreissen und dich zerfleischen bis du nur noch Kompost bist!!!!" Das ganze natürlich in liebenswürdigem Tonfall.)

Eigentlich hatte Häwas ja vor, die Pflanze zu retten, ging aber am Tag darauf auch gleich wieder in die Ferien... nächste Woche habe ICH ferien... ob Ueli das überlebt, weiss ich nicht *seufz* ich werde sie alle töten, wenn sie ihn wegwerfen!

This...is what occured:

Mike: sheeit... i can talk about tits for nine hours if need be
Sarah: but i'm actually LEAVING the office for lunch today
Mike: with your boobs?
Sarah: yeah my tits usually go with me