Here is a picture I ran through Photoshop. I made what you could see through the slats of the fence a negative style and then at the top of the fence I gave it a Sepia Tone. I have entitled the pic "A Nuclear Sunset" 

Me in my retro stage. 

From here to, well, lets see, there.!

I was in the store today shopping for groceries. There was a man shopping with his son who seemed to be around 10 or so. Anyway he had his son in one of those shopping carts that have a truck cab on the front of it. As the man was going throught the produce section he told his son that he needed to pull over and stop the truck. The boy did so and with all the sound effect that go with applying the brakes and pulling over. It was quite qute, and I found myself smileing at what the two of them had done. I thought to myself, "I can't wait to do that with Adrian." It makes me feel even more anxious for his arrival, actually I guess technically he is here, but not all the way. Don't you love my logic? I mean think about it. Arriveing implies that he is already somewhere meaning inside M. She might say something about what I'm going to say. It's like he's arriving on a plane or something, just not yet.

I have some news, our friend (Phantom Manifesto) from Bal'mer is coming out to visit us during the middle of October. This will be her first time on the west coast, and if I remember correctly the farthest west she's ever been. I'll use the above pseudonym, nom de plume for the time being until I ask her about useing her proper name here on the blog. Anyway she's coming out to visit. Both M and I are very excitied about her visit. We haven't really started talking about what all we'll do, but most important is just spending the time togeather. It's not too often we get to have friends and family to come out here. Actually all the friends who come out here are considered family because we've known them for a long time and for how close they are to us. It may sound funny but whats' wrong with that? Ok, how do I make the departure from this line of thought to my schooling? mmmm............. Let's see.

School is going good. (how's that for a segway?) The first full week of school is now over, only eleven remain. Right know we're learning about "Self -Excited DC Generators" and everything that pertains to there in. In my class there are twelve students, six groups of two to do motor labs, and eighteen labs to do, which mean each group of us gets to do three labs. Each of these labs gets progressivly more complex. We're beeing shown how controlling a field rheostat alows for more saturation in the field coils of the shunt generator and increases the field current and voltage. Therefore resulting in a more efficient generator. Now I must admit there is slightly more to it that just that, I just felt I should share a very little fraction of what I've gotten myself into. Oh yes it gets even more complicated, wait till I start learning about AC (alternating current) motors and generators.

Well all for now, and catch you all on the flip side.

A New Class In It's Self

Well folks, it's finally here, a new semester of school. I started back on this last Thursday and the first class only lasted 1 hour 45 min. It was basically everyone just catching up with each other, but I must admit it was fun to just sit and talk instead of getting back to just book work. On Friday we started in on the book work and we had a short lecture. For those who don't know what I'm studying in school I shall enlighten you. I'm enrolled in the Electrician program at The Bellingham Technical College. It's a two year program but technically it's only a year and three months long. I'm certainly in my 4th quarter out of a total of 5 quarters. When I finish I'll graduate with a A.A.S(Applied Associates Science) Degree. I'll be finishing up at the end of next March, but won't actually graduate till June, that's when the college holds their entire graduation.

This quarter we get to work on and with DC (Direct Current) and AC (Alternating Current) motors and generators. The class has been split up in 6 groups of 2 and each group is assigned three motor labs to complete and present to the entire class. I don't want to get too technical cause it can be a little confusing if your not familiar with the terms and electrical theory. Here is one example, it's the first lab that I have to complete and present with my friend Paul from class. First, we have a lab book that tells us what excitement we need for the lab, and then it tells you how to arrange them on the floor pan. Then it show you a motor schematic and then you have to connect the different components on the motors in certain ways ie. in series or parallel. So that they accomplish a desired effect on how the motor operates, and how you read the voltage and ampere outputs. Also you have to add different resistances, shunt fields, coils, and such all to see how it effects the out puts. It's all quite interesting, but you can't fully understand it unless you have all the theory understood. All that took until now to fully comprehend, but what you don't realize is at the time your learning quite a lot. Pretty cool huh?

The Electrician program at the Technical College has a 80 percent placement rate after graduation. The other 20 percent happens either before or a couple of months after graduation. Can't really say that about actual big colleges. I feel that I'm pretty lucky in that aspect. One of the jobs I've been thinking about going into is Low Voltage Security Systems Installations. Reason being is that I designed my own last quarte as some of you might already know, so hopefully that will work out in some form or another.

I finally really felt Adrian kick around in M the other night. All it took was for us to shine a small flash light through M's tummy to wale him up and move around. It's a pretty cool feeling to actually feel him moving around. We also had our first Birthing class last Tuesday evening. It turned out to be alot of fun, we met a lot of really nice people who are due with in a month of us. At first I was nervous about going to the class, maybe because of meeting new people I didn't know and sharing the feelings of having a baby. I mean to a certain point it seems a bit personal to share what your experiencing. After I got over that I just relaxed and enjoyed my self and so did M. It's a six week long class which is good because I want to learn as much as possible be fore the little man makes his big appearance. It's all so I can feel the most valuable during the delivery ,cause to be honest most dads feel quite useless during that time.

M and I where talking one day about when we're in the hospital, and she says to me that I will be in the room with her during the delivey. I said, with a little smile on my face, "of course I will be,......... passed out on the ground" She immediately shot me (THE LOOK) and I told her reassuringly "I'll be there don't worry."

One quick thought. I'm listening to the Soundtrack to the movie Garden State, there is this song by a group that's called Frou Frou and the song's name is "Let Go". It a pretty awesome song. Well so is the movie, if you haven't seen it DO! It's not too often a great movie like that comes around. Who knew that JD from Scrubs could write and direct such an awesome film, and to be produced by Danny Devito's production company Jersey Films. This album has a lot of great songs by some great artists on it, for instance there's Zero 7, Coldplay, Nick Drake, The Shins and many others. Even if you haven't seen the film the album is good enough to stand on it's own.

One last item of business, for those that would like to contact us at http://www.geocities.com/pixierestoration or you can either check out http://www.geocities.com/radioshowkugs and get that email address off of there or you might be able to find another one at if not try another route. Hope that helps some what.

Well that's all for now, catch you on the flip side.

Time Further Out (A Dedication Of Sorts)

I have been pulled into the never ending world that is called the (Week Long, Best Of CSI). It is quite addictive let me tell you. I had hoped to get some more work done for the business. Reason being it's at a stand still. The business I mean. Awww nevermind, right now it seems to be, well I'm tired. There you heard it first, I'm tired, I guess the correct remedy for this aliment is to get myself to bed, but in all actuality I can't. Ok here is the break down of everything, ready for it? Ok then here we go. First, our business is at a stand still due to uncertain circumstances, second, I'm going to be starting school back up in oh mmm 6 days, third, I have a son on the way. Due in January he is. I apologize to those who may be reading this, it all may seem like random ramblings of a tormented soul but it's not.

A certain song comes to mind right now. The title is called Fujiyama, and it was written by Dave Brubeck. The Song is off the album "Jazz Impressions Of Japan". It was released through Columbia Records. It's a very good song, I recommend that everyone should take a listen to it at their local music store. It begins with a alto sax solo with Dave playing lightly in the background, Eugene Wright strums his bass, and Joe Morello softly bangs a gong every other beat. The song has a slow beat and sounds to me to be lamentful in a way. Perhaps thinking of how things once were, of how my life out here in Washington started. All the many choices I've made, all the people I have met and lost. I find myself thinking about all the "what if's" and if I would change any of my decisions. NO, I wouldn't.

Sure I would have like to have done lots of things fly to the moon, meet the Dahli Lama, dive down see the Titanic in person, and also meet Dave Brubeck. If I did all those things I wouldn't be here, with the person I care so much about. If there is truly one person for me, she is the one for me. A person you can tell anything to, and still care about you the next day. Every now and then M and I talk about when I first came out here to the Great Pacific NW. It was right before spring break of 99'. We talk about all the places we visited all of her friends from the dorms on the Ridge on WWU's campus. Towards the end of us reminiscing I ask her if I ever told her what my grandfather told me the day before he passed away. (A little back story) I had told him that I was going out to Washington to visit M. He told me that "she must be one special girl to be flying out to Washington for." I told him that "yeah she sure is" He told me to have a great time.

The next morning my mom came into my room to tell me that he had passed away over the night. I was still very asleep when she told me. So when I got up out of bed she had to tell me again. It didn't take me by surprise too much because he had been sick for a long time. I called M out in Washington and told her that I may have to cancel my trip out to WA. I talked it over with my mom, cause I didn't want to miss the funeral. She told me that grandpa was really excited for me to fly out west, and it was something that he would have wanted. I think about him everyday. The lessons I learned from him I am going to pass to my son, and tell him about his grandfather who fought in WW II and thought Me how to be a better and loving person. Sorry it took so long for me to get to the point of my blog entry. I guess it turned into a small dedication to someone I miss.

I love you Grandpa where ever you are.

A penny for your thoughts?

As I sit here listening to the theme song to the CBS show Mr. Broadway, by who else Dave Brubeck. It's a very fast paced song with Paul Desmond at the alto sax, Joe Morello at the drums, Eugene Wright on the bass, and Dave Brubeck at the piano. Dave Brubeck seemed to do things with a piano that I as a person with little musical experience find to be absolutely amazing. For Mr. Broadway he had a 2/4 beat playing with the right hand and a 3/4 time on the left hand. This type of timing seems to be normal but other songs of his have 9/8 time, 5/4 time and the trickiest 7/4 time. The first time I heard a Dave Brubeck was on the Infinity commercial for the I-30 car. The song was Take Five, for the short duration of the commercial I felt relaxed and the world around me seemed to just melt away. The song was originally written for the drummer Joe Morello, many people would think it was written for him because of the 1.5 minute drum solo in the middle of the song. It turned out to be a really great ensemble piece.

Dave Brubeck's music for me is used every where. I have copied all his albums to our computer so I can have the music playing in the background. During the run of my radioshow on KUGS I used it as my background music because of how it's just instrumental, no vocals. It made things a little more mellow. The Song Take Five is M's and I song. You know how couples have certain songs that have special meanings? Take Five is special to us. Every now and then I put the Time Out album on and M and I will slow dance to the flowing melodies of the Dave Brubeck Quartet. One night we where working on our friend Tyrone's show "Wreck" that he put up in Fairhaven College. We all setting the set and the actors went to put their makeup on and M and I danced under a single lit stage light for about 12 minutes. It was quite enjoyable, it felt like the prom almost, but with out all the other people and the real sappy music and the disco ball. The only difference is that I got to go home with my date.

I hope one day our son will have the same appreciation and love for all the wonderful styles of music that are in this great world of ours. I have declared to M on many occasions that Adrian will be introduced and listen to Dave Brubecks songs. It may sound too early to be imposing tasks onto him, but I also don't want for it to be too late later down the road. Finally for those reading I hope my little wandering into the world of my minds eye hasn't bored anyone. As the title asks, A penny for your thoughts?