Header taken from "Messenger" - Art by Kurt Vonnegut

Well we've been open for a while now & already had our first Art Show. It was a great success & I can't wait to have more! We've got more cleaning up in the back half of the bottom floor that we should be finished with soon & then we can start on the top floor, again. Our goal is to remodel the small bathroom that is already upstairs, so that we can go ahead and move in! So in about 6 months, we should be living Downtown!!

The Loft
 
Before & After
 
Our Wedding

 

3.30.2006

Happy Birthday!!

Well...Happy LATE Birthday Josiah!
Hope you had a great one!

3.24.2006

Stupid Game

Click for a larger viewI liked this one so I thought I would share it with everyone!
Go to this link for more Calvin & Hobbes funnies.

3.21.2006

Craz'ism Prizzay

This subject is somewhat touchy to ultra sensitive for most people to talk about, so I'll try to be as brutal as possible.

Racism.





You may not even know you're a racist, or you may not care you are a racist. You may try to hide your racism by being overly nice to those who are different from you, or you may not be racist at all, although that is much less likely. And still some may not even know what racism is.

So what is racism?

Dictionary.com defines racism as being 'discrimination or prejudice based on race'. Meaning, members of one race prefer their race to another by using only preconceived notions about that race, religion or philosophy.

Anyone who has studied psychology knows about the study that shows that most white people have an implicit bias towards black people. What this means, is that most white people have a harder time associating black people with positive words, such as, happy, or awesome. Put a picture of a black person with a word such as 'convict', and for some reason, white people just agree and wouldn't question that such a thing would be false. Whoever said Justice is blind, was obviously not a psychologist. Well, now there is a new study saying that there is a strong correlation between having voted for Bush and having an implicit racial bias. While pretty much all white people have somewhat of an implicit bias, white Republicans had more of one than white Democrats.

So now you know that what you are feeling may not be right. But maybe racism has its place in the annals of modern society for a reason. Perhaps racism exists for a reason that we have yet to realize. I believe everything in nature is working towards a harmonic balance. Maybe it stands to reason that today’s racism is a counterbalance to tomorrows 'total acceptance'.

So where do we go from here? Do we point out this implicit bias that exists in most white people? Can we truly ever be fair and just as a nation united in its' distrust of black America? Perhaps one day we will be able to judge people on their character, and not the color of their skin...I'm pretty sure Martin Luther King Jr. said it much better than I ever could. We are definitely products of our environment.. Let’s try to make the environment our kids grow up in a healthy one, in more ways then one.

Note: I scored as having an approximately equal preference,
See what you score here

3.14.2006

We have an Infestation!

No, not a roach infestation…..not a termite infestation…..worse….a Bamboo infestation! It’s horrible!! I started working on it on the 3rd, the plan was just let me clean this bamboo up a little and then start finishing painting the house…well then that turned into an all weekend project…mainly just breaking some of the bigger ones and pulling up the really small brand new ones. Well then the 11th I figured cant be much more work to do…now I’ll start pulling down the really big ones and start pulling up some of those roots. Little did I know what I was actually getting myself into! It’s not just like, oh there’s a root…lets pull it up…of course not! It’s actually like, oh man there’s another one!! Lets start Digging it up and oh crap there’s one crossing over so I need to get that one first….man another cross over….gesh how many are there!!!! And it keeps on going and going and going like that! The bamboo first killed my Rose of Sharon and it actually looks like it started to kill it self because there was so much!! There was even a bird that looks like it got trapped in there and died. I’m still not even close to being done and I’ve spent two whole weekends on the mess!! But it is starting to look better…although now I have a huge pile of bamboo in the middle of the yard with no idea what to do with it! Any ideas anyone!?!? Until next weekend it just stands there haunting my dreams….literally! I close my eyes and I see bamboo roots being unearthed!!! I really can’t even put into words how bad it is!! Maybe these pictures will help a little bit…..but it’s much worse than the pictures can even begin to show!!


These are the ends of stalks I have broken off....I had to bend them down and then jump up and down till they cracked then fished cutting them with some tree trimmer things....


Here is the pile of bamboo I pulled down...this was before I finsihed....that pile is like twice as big now!


The line is where the bamboo came out to when I first started. You can kinda tell that it is even over in our neighbor's yard...It runs down her fence and to the other side of her yard also...

3.09.2006

Why, materialism?

Remember when you were young and you didn't know the difference between Nike and K-Swiss or New Balance and Puma? Remember when you could wear hand me down clothes without thinking twice about it? What about that first car you had that you were so excited about, but since it was most likely used and abused you didn't think twice about that extra ding you got while shopping at Wal-Mart. Wasn't it great not caring whether someone gently rear ended you, or that someone who accidentally spilled coke in your floor board? It was as if you had all of the luxury and satisfaction of being able to wheel yourself around without the stress or burdens imposed on you when that rock from the driver in front of you suddenly nails your windshield with a bulls-eye.

What happened to those days? What causes the materialistic culture that surrounds us to silently, methodically creep into our own, uninhibited lives? Is it due to the fact that we spent so much money on our precious that we can't bare to see harm come to it? Is it societies way of keeping us in track with the lives of others who care more so about their possessions then human well-being? And if so, what happens when we reject the social phenomenon that is keeping us at bay by employing actions that could be certainly described as loony. Such as parking where no other vehicles could possibly open a car door into your own, or continually buying new clothes so people don't remember you re-wearing the same thing, or possessing such crazy things as thousand dollar watches or accessories. What has society made us into?

I, for now on, shall be conscious of my actions when it comes to matters of a materialistic nature, and I shall reject philistinism for a much more appreciable way of life. Don't be a slave to materialism any longer and perhaps one day society will yield to you and wake up from this so called lifestyle of physicalistic behavior.

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind"

Mahatma Gandhi    

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