No, this isn't ominous at all.

 These are hundreds of turkey vultures flying around town. What the hell!

Why am I posting this....

Because I can't breath from laughing!

Belated New Years Resolution

It's time to get back into shape.
My job takes a lot out of me both mentally and physically. I sit for long periods of time at a terminal. I don't have the most healthy diet due to conferences and travel, not to mention that I love to a fault vending machine chili fries with a Mountain Dew. This lifestyle has given me a paunch that I hate with all my being. So, time has come to make a change other than just spending a couple minutes every other day walking the track at the local gym while listening to crappy lectures on my phone.
I am going to take photos as I go in hopes that seeing the progress will motivate me into working harder.
Beginning measurements:
Height: 6″ 1
Weight: 209 lbs.

Initial Girth and Maximum Endurance Measurements (In Inches)
Neck: 17 3/4
Chest – Across Sternum: 47 1/2
Waist – Narrowest circumference: 35
Hip – Around The Buttocks: 41
Upper Arm – Mid point: 15 1/2
Thigh – Mid Point: 23 2/3
Calf – Largest Point: 18 1/4

Curl (one arm) - 75 lbs
Bench press - 235 lbs
Squat - 365 lbs.
Incline Squat - 490 lbs.
One mile run - Not doing this part. My knees aren't going to let me.

Starting Photos: 
Just forewarning:
There will be no picking out the best of hundreds looking for just the right one. (especially since they are open to the internet for everyone to see.) I AM tensing my stomach because in the future pictures I will be doing the same each time mostly because I don't want this to be one of those amazing before and after shoots where the model/actor is pushing out his stomach as to look as if a miracle of weight loss has happened at the end of each week.

Waiting on code to compile....

GPOY

The dry skin irritation between my eyebrows and it's making me look like a dot head Indian edition.


thank you come again....

Want!!!!

I understand now why actual "people walking in the streets" protests don't work.
As I got off of the train at the Marta station and walked down the street from the Capitol with some friends today, I held my sign up high while trying to show support to the cause. While walking down Courtland street, I noticed there were at least three types of people joining out cause by the time we made it to the marble steps.
First. There was the tight knit family. They were cute and all but they weren't really able to do anything because of the kids. Whenever one of the cute little (5-8 year old) kids would get bored and cry in the cold. One of the parents would have to distract them by walking away from the crowd with them, which in turn removed about 20% of the population by the end of the afternoon.
Second. There were the people protesting but really didn't understand why. "Obama wants to take away all our guns", "I need to keep my shotgun because I don't want some black guy attacking me." (Direct quote) Yes, they have a right to complain. Yes, they have the right and cause in their head to be right there along with us trying to influence the state on allowing us to keep safe. But when you are so scared that some jackbooted masked police state is going to come along and have an enforceable law where you are no longer allowed to have any firearms at all is just ludicrousness.  Learn and educate yourself before you come out into public. Some day they will realized how bad they were making our cause look by flocking to the news and spouting off at the mouth that Obama is the devil
Third. The paramilitary/redneck that came out of the backwoods looking for a fight. What rock did these idiots come out of? Better yet, Why did someone turn it over and let them out into the world? When you show up to a peaceful and rather well organized political event, you don't show up in woodland camo pattern BDUs, carrying the largest caliber handgun your belt can hold up. This was never meant to be a "Bring your gun and show it off" event. Yes, I was carrying. I always do. But you couldn't see it. Hell, I checked myself out in the mirror at the 5 points station just to make sure I wasn't printing in anyway. When you are wearing a huge hog leg .44 magnum in a worn out leather gun slinger belt, you are going to get looks. You are going to get attention. Lots of it.  But not the kind of attention you want when you are trying to show the world that there are sane people out there that just want to have the legal rights to own and shoot their rifles or pistols whenever they want in a safe manner! Luckily there weren't that many of these to be had. I guess the ones that were posting online about how they were going to be coming down from the North Ga mountains got lost once they passed the 85/985 connector and just stopped off at Bass Pro to stock up on fox pee.
Who would give these people precedence if they all just look and/or act as if this was just another social event to be seen at and/or proved that the misconceptions that gun right supporters were just as crazy as some mainstream media would have the public believe.
Oh, a fourth. People like myself. This group made me so proud. There were so many well dressed and professional looking people out that were just as mad as myself. We made our message clearly heard. David Shafer even talked to a couple of us after a while which was really respectable of him.
Look, I know that what we did today was just a symbolic drop in the bucket but maybe, just maybe the crazies were overlooked and the seeds of a rational thought were planted in some of the more close minded decision makers of our state.
It has been a very long day. A good day.
Goodnight and sweet dreams. Where ever you are.

I may of found my new favorite bar.

You know how cartoon characters will run in midair for a second, just before they look down and fall into a canyon?
That is my government right now.

An insomniac's observational list.

• There is a crack in the plaster above my head in bed. 
• Buffy is snoring downstairs 
• Murphy is laying at the foot of my bed. Every once in a while he will start moving his feet as if he was running in his dreams. 
• Sharon is in her bedroom, having fallen asleep while listening to a movie. 
• The wind is blowing hard outside. I'm waiting on the cold to settle in but the house is nice and warm for the time being. 
• I can hear a train whistle blowing somewhere.
• I wish I could sleep. 

Goodnight where ever you are. 

Ramblings...

It's a cold rainy morning today. The kind of day, you just want to grab some comfort snacks and slog through the day till you can curl up on the couch to rest. With the drought going on there really aren't many days like this to be had. As I drove through Macon on my way to Atlanta, I had this strong craving for something sweet. But not just anything sweet. I wanted something from my past that I will always associate with cold rainy days. Something that would rekindle not just a memory, but a memory of a smell. A smell that would remind me of my hometown.
In the mid 80's, my grandmother would take my brother and I into the best bakery in Commerce. Seagrave's Sweet Shop as a behavioral reward after the library reading time. Mrs. Seagrave's store was downtown in one of the old storefronts that always looked to me as if they were on the verge of falling in. The hardwood floor was worn thin in places from generation after generations of young children coming in to look in the tall cold glass cases at all the thickly iced sugar cookies she had made the night before. As we would work our way down the display case, the selections would transfer from cartoons to the wedding cake peti fores. They were all carefully cradled in thin white paper cups. The pure white fondant coverings were decorated with little green icing ferns, or small pink and red flowers. These delectable were my young self's version of the zenith of culinary sweets. Whenever I got the chance, they were always my choice of an afternoon sweet snack. As I would reach up and enthusiastically take the offerings from Mr's Seagraves, I could smell the sweet flour she had used. It is that flour smell that I long for today. There is nothing in this world that smells as good to me when it comes to food. That smell is what I want today. I just want a couple of those little morsels of goodness on my way home.

I hate political posts, but this

Spicy tuna lunch !

with spicy firecracker crab, California roll, and hopefully some uni unagi.......


Life is hard.

An overload of 18 hours in class time this semester and the ever present work higher ups asking me to do more and more is kicking my ass. Every day, I am at school at 7:14 am. I workout in the gym for a half hour then take off to class at 8. I have a string of 4 classes that end at 1:30. At which time I pack up and head to work for 8 hours of keeping up with my real life. It's not hard in writing, but the day to day keeping up with school homework, reading, and researching then at work I have to do the exact same thing over with yet another contract that never seems to end.
This is hard. It really is. I have never really looked forward to holiday weekends but this one coming up is going to be welcomed with open arms.

Good night and Sweet dreams. 

Playing hookie.

There is nothing like a quiet afternoon on the range to release stress.  No one wanted to come with me from home so screw it.
I like the quiet.

My fat little cheerleader

At least I have some company.

Looks as if I am going to be up all night studying.

Come say "Hi."  I could use some distractions.
  Home Office Cam

I just saw a shooting star while walking the pups.
Wouldn't life be so great if we actually did get a wish when one passes through our little neck of the universe. 

Short Rant:

Why does everyone see me as a bad guy?
I would give my left nut for someone in real need. I have given my honest to god last dollar to someone who was hungry. I am still in love with and respect the very first person I ever kissed. I'm a safe driver, sort of. I still hold open doors for women and children even though most ladies in redneck'sville just give me "Go to hell" looks as they pass. Shit! I petted a freaking stray cat today at lunch.
Do I have a sign on me that screams "Talk to me like I'm crap"?

FORMBY "IN DA CLUB" (FEATURING EWAN WARDROP - SALIDA PRODUCTIONS)

Goodnight and sweet dreams, where ever you are.
I miss you. 

Better one, or better two.

Yeah, I know I'm not smiling.
Deal with it.

12

Things I do on my day off.

 My baby garden. Grow my beauties....

 Strawberries and the beginnings of a future rosemary hedge.

 Cloned Heirloom Purple Bearded Irises from my Grandmother's house on Scott Street.
I may split them yet again before I transfer them into my yard.

 Massive amount of Celosia. This stuff is like a freaking weed by how well it germinates.

 The pineapples are coming along nicely.

 Last fall, I bought 4 dry, dead looking, and pitiful Boston Ferns from Lowes. They are definitely not dead anymore and will look great by this summer. Bonus... I split them all multiple times since they were so root bound that I will have a few to spread around the firepit/bbq area under the Pecan tree area.

 Some more discount dying plants that are looking great now.

 This water feature is what I spent most of the afternoon on. When the pond is completed, it will feed an aquaponic system for year-round strawberries.

Just a pot of random annuals as well as a nice pot of Oregano that I keep warm and safe while  it is cold outside.

 Better picture of my secret to great frozen pizza.

Can't sleep, no one to talk to. May as well do a meme.

Your Aspie score: 82 of 200Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 126 of 200You are very likely neurotypical

I needed this today.

No one should have to be at the airport at 5am.

Damn I love Betty White.

I went to Cracker Barrel today for the first time in quite a while. Being there, in hopes of some New Year's collards and black eye'd peas, reminded me of my mother when she had her first bout with breast cancer.  Every night before close, she would call down to the restaurant and ask me to bring home  some dumplings and hash brown casserole. Her chemo made her so sick that there were only a couple foods that she could eat without making her sick. I would pack up all the dumplings that were left over in a quart jar and fill up a to-go plate of casserole for a late night dinner with her at the kitchen table.
I may not of been as good of a son than she deserved, who had his priorities way out of wack most of the time, but seeing the smile on her face as we sat at the table late into the night talking was always a good feeling.