I have finally gotten off my ass and worked on getting my yard all cleaned up.

 

Here are some pics of my labor:

 

ok,  I got sucked in - I admit it. 

  I signed up for Napster UNLIMITED/To Go service for the "free" creative Zen V plus player. Well, so far, out of the 3 bands I wanted to listen to thru their "free" player, TWO of them have required additional payment to even listen to on my computer - let alone upload to a portable player. 

   To me it is complete BULLSHIT to advertise "UNLIMTED ACCESS"  when at current count 66% of the music I want access to is NOT accessible.   The unfortunate thing is, I signed up for a 1 year contract to get the "free" portable player.  The good thing is I used my Amex card, and generally speaking, they side with customer, so hopefully I can cancel the membership and not be charged.

    The ONLY reason I considered using them in the FIRST place is that their software runs under Vista 64.  Oh well,  guess I'll keep my Rhapsody account active, even though I need to use a VM Ware virtual machine to use it -- it has access to all the music I want.

well, my addictive personality has now picked up a new addiction (for a while it was running) -- reading.  I used to "hate" to read.  Mostly I would guess because I was such a slow reader (~340 WPM).  But lately, since I have been reading so much, my reading speed is now close to 600, that's almost double, but I digress.  Anyway, I have been reading at least 3 hours a day now for the last  month.   the last couple days it was actually closer to 8 hours.   I have devised a system - I set the timer for 1 hour, and start reading one of the books I currently have out of the library.

    Once that hour is up, I need to either start reading a differnt book , clean/organize the house, work on Math (currently going thru binomial algebraic equations), exercise, or my newest "passion" learning spanish..  I am allowing myself 1 hour a day (ok, sometimes 2) for either computer fun, or watching TV. 

    The trick with this is, 1 hour out a day is not much, and learning new things is never bad.  The strange thing is, I used to LOVE to sit for 12+ hours playing some various computer game (can you say Diablo 2 -- I knew you could).  Now, that seems like such a waste of time. 

    I can pretty much make it thru an average size book (350 pgs) now in a couple of days.  The end result of this is, I have now read more books in the last month, than I have in the 10 years I have been out here in Phoenix combined.  Because of all this reading, my reading speed and comprehension are improving as well.  Makes sense - as with anything else, the more you practice, the better you become.

    Most of the reading I have been doing has been on scientific topics - evolution, cosmology, DNA, et al.   I did however read Catcher in the Rye - never had to for school or college.  I had always heard what a great, fantastic, and edgy piece of literature it was.  I expected a great read.  Thank goodness it only took a few hours to read.  It was quite disappointing.  I guess maybe in the 50's when it came out, it may have been all those things mentioned.  In todays world - it is NONE of them.   Oh well, the bottom line is, I have broken the habit of sitting on my ass playing computer games to sit on my ass to read books.  Not to worry - I still try to run/jog at least 15 miles a week too. 

 

This is a comparison over the first 4yrs ONLY. I really don't know how he kept his job?
Median household income, change
Clinton: +1.7% per year
Bush: -1.6% per year
Number of Americans in poverty (average change per year)
Clinton: -800,000
Bush: +1.5 million
Number of Americans without health insurance
Clinton: +145,000
Bush: +1,885,000
Federal surplus/deficit (annual average):
Clinton: +$5 billion
Bush: -$350 billion
Clinton: 1 blow job
Bush: Choked on Pretzel

 

not sure how accurate all the above is, but sounds about right.  Especially the last part.

Well, I have gotten more projects done that have been on my list for-EVER.  I finally got my utility sink all installed in my laundry room (VERY LONG story) - but lets just sum it up by saying the THIRD time is the charm.   I also got my master bathroom painted, and today decided to do some stenciling -- check out the pics: