A note on the pictures:
If you click on them, they will size to your computer screen.
If you click on the icon on the lower right hand corner of the image after it has been resized to fit your screen, it will then be displayed close to actual size....

One of the better family pictures taken in recent times (sans Sarah). Pa has a slight smile (hes tryin) but this might have just been him picking at his dressing on his recent mouth surgery and not actually smiling--although all were in good spirits.











This is a shot of Dad's impression of a House of Commons speech by a Tory.



A little change of pace.
These are pictures taken last weekend when some of the New York side of the Hoch squad rolled into town. My mother looks really good in this here shot-she had a pint of beer which really brings out her complexion.
This is also a classic Steve Hogg look. This is his conversation/lecture look where he is making a particular point about something which he believes strongly in. I have seen this look many times in my life.




Another shot where my mother looks great--they are having a great time with each other.
Of course, I was leaned on to select the place to eat so I went with the old favorite, the 74th Street Ale House. Good beer, mellow atmosphere, steller healthy food.
Although I do think that their menu has gotten a lot simpler than it used to be in previous times. They do not have any fryers, which I think is a good thing, but a little mashed potatoes wouldn't hurt the establishment. If I were to design a pub, I would do it in the same fashion that this guy manages his, except I would work a little harder to diversify the menu just a little bit.
I would also move around the beer a little more than he tends to. In the old days, this place used to be a roving array of various taps including the best beer in the world, the Tetley's.

Time to go for now.

Cheers!! Read more!

The Bite of Seattle...

Okay, so I know that some people are going to get pissed off at me about this shot, but man, when the opportunity presents itself, you just have to put it on the web.

First off, that poor poor thong. Ladies, please think about the right times to wear a thong. I know that Chingy likes his bitches to always wear them and Cisco too, but for the rest of us, please try to contain yourselves.

Secondly, this was taken at the Bite of Seattle. Man, I think I got something stuck in my teeth, but I can't seem to find the floss.....

Okay, I'm Done. (Be sure to click on the pic for a special treat!)

We also got to see this lil hottie perform while Flossy was showing us her buffet. She was pretty talented for the first couple of songs, then became a little dull, but fun to watch.

Do you remember the days when the Fat yet kinda buff Elvis lookalike days were not here? I think its coming back again unless you don't ever want to have a job that asks in the interview "So, how often is your parole officer going to have to stop by?"

It is a harsh tone, but seriously dude, chicks might dig it now, but when your 40 and you just cant get that El Camino off the blocks in yer ma's driveway, what the hell ya gonna do?

Oh, youre going to watch bands and fuckin rock out duder! God Bless Amorika!

But wait... Theres more-- not only do you get the chance to look like a character that was cool in the late 90's-- you also get to rock out with the SCREAM FACE of the late 90's!!!!

"High School was so fuckin AWESOME!!!"

Gotta love the free festivals!

Read more!

Ahhh yes, summer is here and in Seattle, that means FUTBOL!
This is a shot from the Seattle Sounders and Sunderland sucky match. This will be the only picture that I post of this match because it was the worst FUTBOL game I have ever watched. Sunderland is in the premiere league this year and they handled Seattle with ease.
The worst part is that Sunderland had no intention of really scoring during the entire game--they just seemed to be running drills against the JV team.
The other bad part was the lack of planning on behalf of Qwest Field-- they only opened one side of the stadium, which made the game so much lamer because there were not 4,000 per side, but 8,000 on one side. (Sad part was it was the sounders biggest attendance ever!!!)
Sounder fans were like band geeks in high school--but with BOOZE!!!
Not to mention the $7.50 Red Hook Pounders!!!

Go Capitalism! Read more!

It is always so difficult to come up with a title sometimes. Today I was tempted to write "Blah", but I didn't feel that it really brought out truly how I felt. I have been very productive today--it is only 130 in the afternoon and I have already been to the market, worked on cleaning up the car.. which reminds me...
I needed to grab the sun visor before I forgot it once again. Mission accomplished.
Anyway, I am about to go to the bite of Seattle with a friend from work and I will be taking summer the wonder retriever, so pictures are sure to take place.
The last week has been a whirlwind for me--trying to enjoy the job so that I do not burn out as fast as I have the potential to, meeting new people and trying to find time to apply for jobs, write the great American novel that I feel is inside me somewheres... and planning events.

I have a slight headache and need some advil--and its time to head out.
I'll be writing more much later. Read more!

Office Space in reality

Ahhh, week 4 of another version of Office Space.
The funniest part about working in technology is that the people you work with actually quote the movie, but what they don't realize is that the film is more about them....

So, uh, yeah, its time to get back to work.
Figures that I would be in hell when the weather begins to get this nice.
The saga that is Tim Hogg. Read more!

Ahhh, the scenes of summer. This was actually taken a couple of weeks ago during the July 4th weekend of celebration and such.
It was nice to get out into some sunny weather and enjoy the warm heat on my skin, which soon enough turned into some nasty sunburn, but all in all, the effect was still glorious.

It's been a nice, relaxing weekend and dare I say, the weather in Seattle has managed to show a little sunshine. Alas, I am stuck inside as I have a shit ton of work to get done this weekend and not much money to go out and reek havok upon the city. Worka has been durka durka, but I am slowly digging myself out of the hole that is Hogg. I am confident that sometime in the next three months, I will be able to sit back and not owe basically everyone I know. :)

In other news that is annoying, NIN tickets went on sale yesterday, but I am still paying off my Two weeks of Dave Matthews shill, so I had to take a pass on Mr. Reznor for now. I will, however, still be going to this show as it is the first good band that has decided to come to Seattle on a Friday night in ages. I think the last good one was Radiohead at the White River two years ago... So thanks Trent, ya fuckin cock!!

....More later..... Read more!

Chicken In.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, working 40 hours a week, communting 7 hours a week and sleeping about 40 hours a week doesn't leave too much time for anything. Sorry that this blog has managed to take some time to get onto, I have had consistant thoughts about writing, but virtually no spare time to really get it done.
The job, well, I think Cingular is one of those companies that manages to find blogs where people talk shit about them and they seem like the top that would like more than anything to use it against the person, so I'll refrain from discussion. The job is fine for the most part, but the things that I do not like, I will say that it seems to make the most amount of sense to just focus on the positive parts and refrain from the rest.

I am starting to get busy with the 826 program stuff--we have a reading on Monday night at Elliot Bay for a writer that is supposed to be the hot bred topic of fiction right now-- but then again I was reading Vanity Fair www.vanityfair.com last night and they have an interview with Cormac McCarthy who has his first novel out in a decade or so. Interesting guy because he is slightly reclusive and fairly outspoke about how dull people really are-- which is what I have noticed.

Anyway, enough of the bullshit and back to my favorite topic--- politics.. So, lets see how the media, the "liberal media" can manage to drop the Rove issue and move onto something else. They almost have to do it (move on) because it doesnt matter what happens, Bush is not going to fire him because he can't survive without Rove. If he was smart, he would fire him and put him on personal retainer. The press would find out and have a field day with it, but Bush doesn't really give a shit, he knows he has the country by the balls and we as pathetic patriots won't get involved in the ongoing fiasco. The Bush administraion is starting to make the Nixon administration look like the Carter administration!
Let's recall what has happened in the last 5 years
911 (Yes, I think Bush is slightly at fault)
Afganistan (Osama bin Laden in the hills orf Tora Bora with a respirator)
Invasion of Iraq (WMD...no Saddamn is an "evil Doer" ok, but what about the rest of the shitbags in the world)
Pissing off South Korea
Pulling out of Kyoto
Oil Drilling in Alaska
The Downing Street Memo
Karl Rove ratting out a CIA agent because her husband made comments about the "war" in Iraq.

Oh, and the stock market--that is one that I just keep forgetting!!!
HAHAHAHA

Okay, back to work. Just thought I woud drop a line--more this weekend, I promise! Read more!

Live 8

Here is the link to all the performers-- Watch it, support it, make love to it.

http://www.sonician.com/live8/list.html

Thanks Pat. Read more!

Ahhh yes, the War of the Worlds.

After months of speculation, War of the Worlds finally emerged from the rumor mill. Speilburg, god bless his soul said in just about every interview I saw that he had been waiting to make this movie his whole life. Well, Mr. Spielburg, I think you probably should have waited a lot longer. This film does not deliver on any level what should be intended from the masterpiece.
First off, I am convinced Speilburg has a man crush on Mr. Scientology.

Secondly, the film needs to be about the human condition and the violence of the apocolypse, not about a man and his dysfunctional family--we got the opportunity to invest in a family that doesn't care about itself, so why do we need to? The film spends too much time attempting to invest itself in the faith and values tour and not enough time in focusing on what the movie is about--that we are being invaded by aliens and the race is being lost-humanity is over as we know it and we spend too much time in the family structure watching a group of characters that are bitchy and not fun to keep an eye on.

The eye candy factor is good, but there is no stroy line--not why they are here, not what all the bloody veins mean for the area, nothing. The story focuses more on the family than on the conflict, which might work if this was the War of the Roses....

The film itself isnt anything stunningly amazing either--there is no need to see this in the theatres--the good eye candy scenes are in the preview reels--trust me--dont waste the 9.00 to see it--go see Layer Cake instead. Read more!

London Calling

Another moment in history that has a direct corrolation to who we elected to be our leader. The British tip their hat to you, George W. Bush. For those of you out there who do not blame our actions in the Middle East, I must ask, when are you going to come to your senses?

Yes, the true blame is on these terrorists, but in reality, we give them the fuel for their fires. This is done in several levels, most of which come directly in our involvement in affairs that we have no business really being involved in. The billions that we spend in the name of freedom is never going to be able to stop these bombings from happening. THERE IS NO STOPPING THIS UNLESS WE STOP GLOBALISM.

Think of it in this rationale: Family and honor are a big thing in the middle eastern culture. There is also an eradication of the middle class, so there is either the super wealthy or there are the poor. The poor are an easy target to bring into the terrorist network because they have no options and they know it. It's not like how it is in here in the United States where we are marketed to think that everyone can have the American Dream--these people know they are fucked-period. So, Johhny Jihad comes along and offers you a free ticket into the arms of Allah via a small bomb that will take your life out of this miserable existance. And--if you act now, Johhny Jihad will also include at no extra charge, $50,000 cash to you family so that they might have opportunities for that dream of being able to eat every day. All you have to do is strap this device to your arse.
Where do I sign up?

So, how do we fix this? Well, I can tell you that it is not going to be repaired by introducing them to the George W. Bush faith and impearlism plan. I am not saying the answer is going to be an easy one, but I can tell you that encouraging war and fighting fire with nuclear fire is not the way to do it and the global polls show this.

The other issue overall is what this is doing to the decline of the USA on the world marketplace. The thing about politics is that people don't really care if you are the world leader as long as you are at the table and it seems you are paying attention to the needs of the global community. The problem now is that being on the American side is beginning to get costly for people and we as a nation are not putting on the dog and pony show we once were. The other issue is that America is quickly becoming broke, but the media is not paying attention to that-- we dont want to alarm the people, after all....

Don't believe me? Consider this: Think about how much money we have spent since 911-from the rebuilding efforts to the War in Iraq to the loss in the market, to the cessation of the social programs--all of indicators are there, but we refuse to allow for an open debate of this. The republicans sit behind their shield of faith and values and the democrats are immediatly discounted at the table from these people. It just isnt right and the rest of the world watches with their heads shaking. We are more concerned with what Paris Hilton is up to then what our president is trying to do to fix the mess that he has gotten us in.

It's not complicated. Everyone knew we were going to invade Iraq and 911 gave him the key to the city to invade. Bush needs to be brought up on war crimes when he leaves office-- he keeps shaking the hornets nest and the rest of the world gets stung. It isn't going to be too long before the finger gets pointed directly at W. and he is not going to have a copy of "my pet goat" to hide behind....

this country saddens me this day. Read more!

Our Pathetic Nation....

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (AP) -- James Henry Smith was a zealous Pittsburgh Steelers fan in life, and even death could not keep him from his favorite spot: in a recliner, in front of a TV showing his beloved team in action.
Smith, 55, of Pittsburgh, died of prostate cancer Thursday. Because his death wasn't unexpected, his family was able to plan for an unusual viewing Tuesday night.
The Samuel E. Coston Funeral Home erected a small stage in a viewing room, and arranged furniture on it much as it was in Smith's home on game day Sundays.
Smith's body was on the recliner, his feet crossed and a remote in his hand. He wore black and gold silk pajamas, slippers and a robe. A pack of cigarettes and a beer were at his side, while a high-definition TV played a continuous loop of Steelers highlights.
"I couldn't stop crying after looking at the Steeler blanket in his lap," said his sister, MaryAnn Nails, 58. "He loved football and nobody did (anything) until the game went off. It was just like he was at home."
Longtime friend Mary Jones called the viewing "a celebration."
"I saw it and I couldn't even cry," she said. "People will see him the way he was."
Smith's burial plans were more traditional -- he'll be laid to rest in a casket Read more!

One more moment please...

I got back late late late last night and worked today-- have some things to do around the house, so this will be a short one. Lot on my mind that I want to get written down, but need to get the house in order before the weekend hits.
Heres a little something I wrote at work during lunch today--nothing prolfic...

It has been awhile since I really wrote anything worth any interest to anyone but myself, I decided to start bringing my laptop with me to the job that I am currently working at. It beats going out and stuffing my face with take out food.
There is a revelation that I have been going through as of late and that is that eating food out is dumb. Figure it this way:
Lunch out min. $6.00 per day. 6x5=$30.00 $30.00 A WEEK X 4 $120 A MONTH.
$120 X 12= One plane ticket to Rio De Janerio with expenses.
So, when I go to Rio in the new year, it will be due to my decision to stop eating out everyday.
Not too mention how unhealthy it is.

So there you have it-- the word on wisdom... Read more!

I know...

Shortly after making the decision to split this blog into different layers, I seem to have run out of time to make the different blogs make a difference. I am still going to try to keep them seperated, but I will not add anything to the other blogs before this one is updated with blog entries at least tree times a week. That shouldn't be too difficult once I get the schedule down a little better.
I started work this week with another company. The job gets me up around 6am, so I generally have to take a little nap upon arrival back at the hacienda at 5ish or I can't function. This would be a little better if I happened to go to bed before 2!!!

Anyway, I need to shove off-- i have places to be today and they are far away...
Hope all is well, more on that when I git back.
Happy 4th--hopefully I will have some cool firework pics-- theres a setting on my camera! Read more!

Hanford Probe

Since I havent had the time to compile the information.....


Hanford probe urged in Congress
By Shannon Dininny
The Associated Press

YAKIMA — In the latest embarrassing setback to the federal government's largest construction project, a congressional subcommittee is calling for an investigation into a multibillion-dollar waste-treatment plant at south-central Washington's Hanford nuclear reservation.
Paul Anderson, a spokesman for the General Accounting Office, confirmed yesterday that the Republican chairman, Rep. David Hobson of Ohio, and ranking Democrat, Rep. Peter Visclosky of Indiana, on the House appropriations subcommittee on energy and water requested an audit of the project in a letter dated June 24.
Meanwhile, U.S. Department of Energy officials said yesterday they have halted construction on parts of the plant most affected by concerns about seismic instability, in light of a review released earlier this year.
There are legal, enforceable milestones that require that the plant be built by 2009, and "we are prepared to enforce those milestones unless the Department of Energy submits a change request that clearly justifies the need for any delays," Gov. Christine Gregoire said in a statement.
The plant is being built to treat millions of gallons of radioactive waste left from Cold War-era nuclear-weapons production.
Anderson declined to release additional details or the letter.
However, the review is likely to focus on the exploding cost of the project — a point that has been a continuing source of alarm for the Energy Department, which manages cleanup at the highly contaminated Hanford site.
The cost of construction was estimated at $4.35 billion before the contract was awarded in 2000. Already, the cost has grown more than 30 percent — to $5.8 billion.
Earlier this year, the Energy Department began to study the plant's design and cost estimate after a scientific review said that the force of the ground movements at the plant site during a severe earthquake would be 38 percent greater than previously estimated.
In 2002, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board raised concerns that the Energy Department had failed to adequately investigate the impact a severe earthquake might have on the plant. The Energy Department had gathered seismic data from the entire 586-square-mile Hanford reservation to determine the impact such a quake might have, but it did not conduct a seismic investigation of the plant site itself.

The agency has notified Congress that the project's cost is expected to grow by at least an additional 10 percent, said Bruce Carnes, associate deputy secretary. But the Energy Department will not speculate on a final cost estimate or the schedule before a new review by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is completed, he said.
For 40 years, the Hanford reservation made plutonium for the nation's nuclear-weapons arsenal. Today, work there centers on a $50 billion to $60 billion cleanup, to be finished by 2035.
The waste-treatment plant will use a process called vitrification to turn the waste into glass logs for permanent disposal. Read more!

Hanford Exposure

The question upon most everyones mind always seems to ring the same-- Why would you want to go to such a place?
My answer is simple enough.
I think that it is important to understand however difficult it might be, that there are a lot of things that this country has done and will do to keep itself on top of the capitalist food chain. We managed to get to the top very quickly as far as world history goes and most of that is directly due to our mass collection of weapons of mass destruction, which most of the plutonium was manufactured right here in Washington State at the Hanford plant.
I am not going to get into specifics with this article as my feeling is that as a writer my job is to get you interested in what all of this means and you can seek out the information.
Ill finish this in a sec.... Read more!

Hanford Exposure..

Sorry I havent posted in a few days, been out at Hanford reservation taking a tour of the first place to manufacture plutonium, which was used on Japan in the second world war. What I didn't know is that Hanford continued to manufacture plutonium until the mid 1980's!!! The United States has 10x the amount of nuclear weapons that the entire world has combined, which means that we more than likely have between 50-80x that as well.
SCARY.
So, I think my focus will be on that for the next couple of entries.
Ill write more tommorow--we are finishing our nuclear weekend with Silkwood. Read more!

Hanford Exposure

Sorry I have not written in a while--been out at the tri-cities touring the hanford facility--the place where they manufactured the weapons grade plutonium for the first atomic bomb that was dropped on Japan.
So I have been a bit busy, collecting my thoughts. We are watching silkwood tonight--people in the tri-cities seem to be in denial about what happened at these plants over the years. Let me just say that it is one of the more frightening experiences I have had in quite some time. Not by what I saw, but what I didn't see.
More tommorow I promise. Read more!

Solstice

I feel as times like life is just passing me by and I am just sitting here touring the life of Tim Hogg. Here we are the first day of summer, my father's birthday and the day just seemed to cruise right by me once again. It seems like just yesterday I was going to college for the first time, falling into a hole and breaking my ankle, hearing one of my ex-girlfriends got married or graduating college. Life is particular that way.

The summer equinox always seems to bring a change in tides for me-soon the weather here in Seattle will start to get worlds nicer, people will be out in the open wanting to do more things, life will sprout once again. I must admit that I have been feeling slightly down lately because I still can't seem to control how fast these days seem to move forward. I spend most of my time wanting to just catch a moment and relax, but then I find that I have spent too much time relaxing and another day has found itself in the past.

As Eddie Vedder once said, Lifetimes are catchin up to me.

I don't especially have a lot more to add, mostly because it is late and I feel that I should try my best to get some sleep in. Happy Birthday to my Dad, who turned 51 or something like that today. My sister Sarah is currently in route to Britian, where she will be for the next 6 weeks, hopefully discovering more about herself and the world than what she has come into thus far. She has a ton of potential. Read more!

The Split

I have been feeling that there is too much content that is going through this one page of my blog, so I have decided that in order to keep everything to where it doesn't seem to overwhelming, I am going to split this blog into different catagories. This page is going to be mainly for incessent ramblings which do not fit into the other schemes of what I am attempting to do. So, if you are looking for cheeky pictures of people and other oddities that come along, this is your place.

Politik is going to be for ---you guessed it, my general agnst and anger about this foolish system of lies and capitalism that America has become. In this site, I am also going to include some stories from media sources that I feel are not covering the real story.

There is going to be another page dedicated to reviews of films and music that is going to focus on those subjects specifically. (A side note, I just went and saw Layer Cake today and it was fucking great. However it is bloody midnight and I am going to bed, but will write something in the new blog tommorow about it.)

Finally, there is going to be another page which will list all the things that I am currently workshipping and would like to eventually publish or print for money that will go directly to paying off my student loans. There is currently one story up there, but it will soon be followed by another that is going to be about the trip to Hanford that I am about to embark on. I think you will want to stay tuned for that one-- I will be one of the first non-employees to tour the site since 911 and will be covering it just for you, the reader. (Unless I can get someone else to pay me for it.)

Thanks for check, checking it out. The links for all the sites will be listed to the right of the page, below the google search engine.

Ciao Read more!

How The Media Sucks Part 1

I think that I am going to take a little from the friedman book and start to put up stories which I find where I can comment on what the reporter and the newspaper did incorrectly in certain stories. I can then allow you to comment upon these comments.

My first victim:

Man fatally shot at federal courthouse in Seattle
By Sara Jean Green
Seattle Times staff reporter

Now, when you read this article, look at how much attention is put on the actual building and the infastructure of the building and not what happened on the scene, what witnesses saw (there is some mention of this, but not nearly enough), etc. Instead, the reporter uses old information on the building. Why? The person that had the grenade more than likely did not attack the building because he didn't like how it was designed....



ELAINE THOMPSON / AP
A Seattle police officer holds a rifle as he runs toward the Federal Courthouse in downtown Seattle today after a man carrying what appeared to be a hand grenade was shot to death in the lobby of the building after he walked inside and made threats, police said.



BETTY UDESEN / THE SEATTLE TIMES, 2004
The new courthouse is on a full city block at Seventh Avenue and Stewart Street in downtown Seattle.

ELAINE THOMPSON / AP
A member of the Seattle Police Department bomb squad, dressed in protective clothing, walks toward the Federal Courthouse in downtown Seattle today.
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Detailed layout of the courthouse
AP video: Man killed at courthouse
A man who walked into the federal courthouse in downtown Seattle today carrying a hand grenade was shot and killed, police said.
Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske said the man walked into the building armed with a hand grenade. After a 20-minute standoff, Seattle police officers fired several rounds.
The man was shot twice, once in the chin with an M-16 and once in the chest with a shotgun. He collapsed still clutching the grenade, that was later determined to be inactive.
The Seattle Police Department's bomb squad examined the man's backpack before medics were allowed in to treat him.
He was then pronounced dead at the scene, said police spokesman Rich Pruitt.
Police said he walked into the building shortly before noon. The man, dressed in camouflage gear, also wore a backpack attached to his chest, but the chief said it did not appear the backpack held any explosives.
The man did not go through any security checkpoint and was just inside the building lobby.
He was shot by Seattle police. His identity was not immediately known. Two courthouse employees who saw the man said he appeared to be white with blond hair.
Employees were evacuated from the building under escort.
A federal employee said two loud shots were heard, then the man was seen crumpled on the lobby floor. At 12:30 p.m., he was still lying there with what appeared to be a yellow backpack. No one was near the man.

During the stand-off, the man stood at the west side of the lobby, while police with rifles were at a distance near the building's elevators.
The FBI is in the process of obtaining a search warrant for the man's studio apartment, but its location wasn't immediately released.
Court Administrator Bruce Rifkin said that, following protocol, the building was evacuated from the ground floor up to floor five or six. He was unaware of any controversial hearings or trials scheduled for today.
The $171 million federal courthouse at Seventh Avenue and Stewart Street opened in August.
The building houses U.S. Marshals Service, judges, support staff and court clerks, as well as the U.S. Attorney's Office, bankruptcy courts, and probation and pretrial services.
The courthouse was hailed as a huge improvement over the old building, located on Fifth Avenue downtown. In the old building, for example, judges, defendants and jurors walked many of the same hallways and used the same elevators. The trial of terrorist Ahmed Ressam was moved to a newer federal courthouse in Los Angeles, in part because of security concerns.
The building, which began construction after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing but before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, was designed to give the feel of open public access while still providing tight security.
"It isn't easy to make a building feel welcoming and at the same time have security," Court Administrator Rifkin said last summer, on a tour of the new building.
The planners handled it this way:
Visitors may walk into the lobby area a short distance without going through security screening. "The public can come in and enjoy it without having to go through the drill," Judge Carolyn Dimmick said on the same tour.
But in order to get to the courtrooms, the clerk's office, or anywhere else in the building, a visitor must go through a walk-through metal detector, which takes up the right side of the lobby. The court security officers who run the metal detectors are armed. Many of them are retired law-enforcement officers, Rifkin said.
The rest of the large entranceway features what court workers refer to as a moat — a wide, shallow reflecting pool that essentially blocks access to the main part of the building and directs visitors towards the metal detectors. There is an infrared security curtain around the moat, which presumably would set off an alarm if it was breached. It is unclear what might physically prevent a determined intruder from running through the water other than the quick action of the security guards.
In addition, the building's floor-to-ceiling windows have special glass that protects against bombs. The building is set back from the street, artistically, with a large plaza on one side, a block-long staircase on another, and concrete barriers. These features help prevent someone from driving up to the building with a truck bomb. Parking is not allowed along the adjacent streets.
In the fall of 2001, after the anthrax scare, building designers also added a special ventilation system for the mailroom. Read more!

The world is flattening people

After being some 100 or so pages in Thomas Friedman's latest book, "The World Is Flat", I have come to the conclusion of several things. Most importantly, the book makes me wonder why in the hell someone like Friedman would write such a basic book on globalization. It is written in the same kind of format that a book like Globalization for Dummies is written, except without the yellow marketing behind it. (Friedman's book also comes with a shit load of exclamation points as well)
What seems to be missing from the piece is what the hell does all of the discussion mean? Why is it that Friedman and other Americans that like to chime in about how globalization works don't seem to want to think about all the people out there who are not connect and for that fact, don't want to be. The digitial divide as it is called, is still climbing higher and higher.
digital divide is the term commonly used when describing the people that have it vs. the people that do not get it. While all the white people in suburbia are happily connected to the internet, there is still a majority of people that have not the slightest clue how the whole thing works on any level.

It seemed to me that the only thing so far that got flat was Friedman's thought process of who technology is not getting to the people that need it the most. Instead of information being exchanged between people, we are developing a culture of litigation and marketing, too serious downfalls of community. In order for people to be able to work together to debate issues of their own seperate communities, we as a collective need to sort through them in this way. The internet could be used to assist with things like this, but the capitalist side has allowed thins like spam and fraud to gain so much power and momentum for the web that the people that could use it the most, writers, workers are totally disinfrancised from the concept because of the overwhelming control shady business has.
"It's not their fault, they are just attempting to make whatever they can in a free market economy..."
When is our society, even a slight percentage going to begin to look at these issues and begin to debate them? The other book I am reading, John Adams, lived at a point where a simillar discussion took place, right before the US began the War for the freedoms which we don't even understand anymore. Back then, there was respect and debate at the same time--not this mudslinging media circus we have today. Our technology is clouding people's judgements of the way that things are.
Do I keep getting off topic? Well, it doesn't matter anyway, no one but me reads these long ass synopsis of our current climate-mostly because I seriously thing that people are no longer really interested in a discourse about where we are going as a country, they just wanna get rid of all them people that do not agree with the statement, "On Earth as it is in Texas."

Well, Texas is not even close to a global economy and the reality is that the old west mentality, the eye for an eye crap is not going to work against terrorists or people that are connected to them. This homeland security twaddle is just that--another line drawn in the sand that the binLaden's of the world are just laughing at. Why bomb us again when we are spending so much money on nothing that it will virtually bancrupt us anyway.

But that doesn't matter either!

So confusing and so philisophical, it is hard to think about because we don't even know who is right-the scary part is that we are going to find out years from now who was really right and because of technology, my blog might make much longer than I ever do (ya never know) and 100 years from now, when historians are showing that it was because we didn't pay attention to history and we once again allowed the religious zealots to run the country, you'll see this and find time to crack a smile.



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Happy Father's Day....
I wish I had more time to write today, but I needed to get the place ready to start showing. My roommate Scott, moved out this weekend. He is getting married in the next couple of weeks and moved into another place while they were looking for a house to buy. I have come to the conclusion that I am quite content being a renter that is in control of the property that he lives in. It is a different kind of control that you have when you own the place, but you don't have control over who lives next to you, or what happens to the neighbourhood that you live in. Strange things to think about, but I am in the position right now where there are some pretty annoying mexicans that live next door to me. They have lived there since the 1st and already their parking space is full of broken down cars that the guy sits outside of his house and fixes all day long listening to spanish pop music.
I don't mind it half as much as I would if I were the property owner. I am just concerned that people are going to come and see the house, see the group of Corona guzzlers outside the house and just drive on by....
Which effects my ability to rent the place. It has a slight tinge of racism to it, but these guys really seem to fit that stereotype to the fullest.
Such as life.

Anyway, I am needing to get into the shower and go and hang out with my pops on his day. Read more!

Happy Graduation Sarsha!

Mom and Sarah following her graduation ceremony! Congrat's to Sarah! Read more!

Happy Graduation to my 'lil sista Sarah!!!  Read more!

How to piss off lame ass music execs.....

For All its worth, I really need to get off my ass and go biking, but the weather looks poo and I just went to the record store and picked up the new foo.
Foo Fighters, that is kids.
Two cds, one acoustic like and the other is rockin. Both sucked at first because they had the stupid new copywrite software that is installed on it, which DOES NOTHING TO PREVENT PIRICY YOU IDIOT MARKETING PEOPLE!!!! INSTEAD, ALL IT REALLY DOES IS PISS THE PEOPLE OFF WHO TRY TO BE COOL AND BUY ALBUMS OF MUSICANS THAT THEY TRY TO SUPPORT.

And the best part, ladies and gentleman, is I have finally cracked the system and now I can finally burn it to my ipod, but I just might upload it so that the world can have another person to steal it from...

I am going to tell you how to do it --

There are a few topics going on about this already, but this worked the best for me. Good luck.

Start with a Windows 2000/XP system with empty CD drives.

Click the Start button and select Control Panel from the Start Menu.
Double-click on the System control panel icon.
Select the Hardware tab and click the Device Manager button.
Configure Device Manager by clicking "Show hidden devices" and "Devices by connection," both from the View menu.
Insert the CD into the computer and allow the SunnComm software to start. If MediaMax has never been started before on the same computer, the SbcpHid driver should appear on the list for the first time. However, on some systems Windows needs to be rebooted before the driver becomes visible.
At this point you can attempt to copy tracks from the CD with applications like MusicMatch Jukebox or Windows Media Player. Copies made while the driver is active will sound badly garbled, as in this 9-second clip [10].

Next, follow these additional steps to disable MediaMax:

Select the SbcpHid driver from the Device Manager list and click "Properties" from the Action Menu.
Click the Driver tab and click the Stop button to disable the driver.
Set the Startup Type to "Disabled" using the dropdown list.

With the driver stopped, you can verify that the same applications copy every track successfully. Setting the Startup Type to disabled prevents MediaMax from restarting when the computer is rebooted. It will remain deactivated until LaunchCD.exe is allowed to run again.
Equivalently, executing the following commands from the Command Prompt will deactivate MediaMax:

net stop sbcphid
del %systemroot%\system32\drivers\sbcphid.sys


When is the music business going to realize that its their policies that continue to push people to download illeagally. Lower the price of the art....!
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The Hogg Sauce

Well
Well
Well

From time to time I am going to list some of my recipes up here so that you can access the things that I do not like to give away. Over the years I have come across some great things in this world and some of the best is a culmination of reciepes that have come from various points in my life.

There is not one as prized as the sauce recipe and that is mostly due to the fact that no matter how I attempt to describe it to people, they always attempt to cut a corner here and a corner there and do not get the best results.

The Hogg sauce is a combination of several people. My mother's sauce, which is a straight red sauce with a lot of herbs that could be as old as I am mixed together and simmered for hours. The thing about mama's sauce that I didn't like was the horrid heartburn that would come into play because of the acid levels of just plain sauce.

One of my best friends from the SUNY Buffalo days, Mr. TJ Newcomb, used a recipe from his mother that made a sweet sauce that went so well with the sausages we used to get from the Elmwood Market.

Then there was the spicy sauce that was a family recipe from James, who most of his family lived in Nawleans. They made a spicy sauce with red hot sauce that we good, but not traditional.

These three sauces made me wonder what the happy medium could be. After some serious debate about the issue, I came up with the following:
Mom's sauce was a nice base to start with--except try to use fresher ingrediants. Spice it, but also make it sweet so that as the sauce travelled along the tongue, each taste area could get a little bit of the action. (except sour, but that is why I always use sourdough bread for garlic bread)

Like most sauce bases that need a little spice, Make sure to use fresh ingrediants as much as possible-especially garlic, onions, etc.

Biggest thing with cooking the sauce is to make sure to give it enough time for it to properly develop. The longer you let it go, the better the result. You cannot mix this sauce in less than 2 hours--if you don't have that much time, don't even bother with it.

First off, start with the sauce. Canned tomato sauce is fine, Hunt's is usually the best deal and it is salty, so I don't recommend using any more salt than that. Three big cans and three cans of puree should be a good starting point, but I would recommend having a couple of each on hand just in case you need to add. With each can of puree, add a half a cup of water as well.

When all of that is in the pan, add italian seasoning, oregano (okay if in the spice tin) and fresh basil. Let it get hot slowly--key is to not boil it at this stage as you are trying to open the tomato, simillar to opening wine...

Next start chopping the multitude of fresh veg that you are going to be putting into the sauce. Remember, most fo the stuff you are chopping is water based and will shrink. I usually do two onions (white or sweet) cut normally, not too big, not too small. A couple green peppers, a couple yellow peppers, mushrooms (at least a pound, cut into quarters). Leave them until the sauce is hot, but not boiling.

Put the veggies in the mix, stirring constantly.

Give them a little time to begin their process and start on your meats. Generally, when making sauce, the better the ingrediants, the better the sauce. If your in Seattle, the best meat to buy is cascioppo bros. burger meat for the base and then some sausages to add. For the groud beef, brown it before putting it into the sauce and add fresh garlic from a garlic press to the meat while you are cooking it. Drain the fat and put into sauce.

I have used all kinds of sausage and the one that I think comes out best is just a sweet italian.

Now that the majority of ingrediants are in the sauce, now it is time to begin to play with actual chemistry of the sauce. First off, taste the sauce now. It has flavor, but is still a little bland. Start by sweeting the sauce a little. Add one cup of sugar t the mix and let it crystallize a bit on the top before stirring it into the rest of the mix. You will add sugar more through the process, but for now, stick with a cup.
Next, add dried red hot chili peppers. Try to find these--they are much much tastier and potent that the red pepper flakes that most people susbstitute--you will be able to tell the difference. Take about five or six big pods that crush them over the pot, allow the skins and seeds to crumble and tumble into your sauce.
Next add half a clove of garlic using a garlic press.

Let it sit and stew over low to medium heat for an hour, stirring regularly. Taste. The ideal taste you are going for is one of sweetness that has a spike of spice on the end that surprises your guests. I think this is an important element for sure. Keep up the same thing for at least 2-3 hours. The longer it goes, the more complicated the taste gets. a six hour sauce seems to work the best. Read more!

Another right wing conspiricy blunder

Terri Schiavo rests in peace with god.
Whatever.
Watch how quickly this issue dies now that it is known in the land of rape and hegemony that Terry Schiavo had half a brain, didn't die of abuse from Michael and was blind almost the entire time she was in the hospital.
SHE WAS BLIND.
Now that is just plain funny. I feel bad for the soul of Terry Schiavo that had to remain in a blind body while her crazy ass family got people involved in the fight that should not have been there. Now that it is all over and the pie in the face belongs to the republicans, watch how quickly this thing just goes away.
If this really was a liberal media, then we would talk about this event for days and weeks on end because it brings to light several issues within American Society that are incorrect. The right to life debate should end now--people with spouses in vegatative states should have the right to decide what happens to their partner and this decision should have nothing to do with their religion. We have come far enough now as a society to where we should be able to move forward to be able to make judgement calls for those we love who cannot make their own decisions. The Schiavo case is a good example of this. God did not invent the feeding tube, otherwise there would be a little amendment in the bible-- do not kill, but please remove the feeding tube if patient shows little neauro transmission.
That is how it should work.
Instead we get to hear a bunch of white men go on and on about how they read into the bible and its teachings and how these people are so worried about what is going on when in reality, they are just using this case to further their own zealoutrious agenda.
America will never wake up while we are held at bay by these white man attitudes.
I wish Barbara Bush believed in abortion. Read more!

Ramble On...

I am happy to apologize to the handful of you out there who visit my blog about my lack of journaling. After accepting a position with Cingular Wireless, I decided that it was time to take a vacation and get out there and enjoy some of the things that I have not been able to in quite some time. I headed out to the tri-cities and hung out with Heather and her family, which was quite a pleasant break from this shit of a city that we call Seattle. I say shit because the weather is just poo and I after going to the desert for a couple of days, I am convinced that it is soon going to be time to flee dodge and find something a little more accomodating to my needs.
But that is not for discussion this morning, I am attempting to keep a positive touch on things these days and not let those which make me turn to the dark side have power over my thoughts.

While in Richland, I got the reading bug once again. It is the first time in ages that it has hit with the ferocity that it has. I am just wanting to consume books as much as possible and it is such a great feeling! I purchased two books at the Costco-I know, I know, but I am poor right now and if they have a book that I actually want (rarely)that good of a deal is hard to pass up. I picked up the newest book from Thomas Friedman, "The World Is Flat", which is a look at how globalization is taking hold. I got a little into it and didn't like the descriptive narrative that he uses. He sounds a bit pompus, but I think I will be able to look past that when I get back into it. Globalization is a difficult issue to tackle because there is so much scholarly works on the subject, but I think Friedman is attempting to simplify it somewhat and draw his own realitive spin on the subject. He travels to where the jobs in America are being shipped off to and discusses the different parrellels that are involved in keeping the forces of globalization moving forward.

When I buy two books, the same thing always happens. The two stories run in a piss contest to see who can hold my interest for the longest. The victor this time is the first David McCullough book I have read, John Adams. I have managed to stay away from his work because it seemed to be a little too mainstream for me to want to engage in, but his newest book, 1776 seems to be something that everyone needs to read, so I decided to start with the Adams books since it is recommended to begin with this book first and move to 1776. I must admit I am engaged in the book--in the first 100 pages, it had tried to be linear, but it is all over the place, which is fine and it is calming down quite a bit now. In the beginning, McCullough couldn't decide how to start the story--if he should begin as most bio's do, from the childhood or if he should take about the future and move back. He effectively does both.

Anyway, I'll have more on these items in the near future. For now, I must part. Lunchtime calls, then an afternoon biking expedition.
More later. Read more!

This is how I got the belly. I don't like the belly, but I sure love the beeeeeeer sometimes. I am trying to lay off of it, but when the .5 yard special comes around, I have to dance.  Read more!

If only George W. Bush was his neighbor!!

Man with a chain saw that was apparently covered with blood was let into the U.S.

Gregory Despres is shown in this image from television. On April 25, 2005, Despres arrived at the US-Canadian border crossing at Calais, Maine, carrying chain saw stained with what appeared to be blood, a homemade sword, a hatchet, a knife, and brass knuckles. (AP Photo)

By Michael Kunzelman, Associated Press | June 7, 2005

BOSTON (AP) -- On April 25, Gregory Despres arrived at the U.S.-Canadian border crossing at Calais, Maine, carrying a homemade sword, a hatchet, a knife, brass knuckles and a chain saw stained with what appeared to be blood. U.S. customs agents confiscated the weapons and fingerprinted Despres.

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Then they let him into the United States.

The following day, a gruesome scene was discovered in Despres' hometown of Minto, New Brunswick: The decapitated body of a 74-year-old country musician named Frederick Fulton was found on his kitchen floor. The man's head was in a pillow case under a kitchen table. His common-law wife was discovered stabbed to death in a bedroom.

Despres, 22, immediately became a suspect because of a history of violence between him and his neighbors, and he was arrested April 27 after police in Massachusetts saw him wandering down a highway in a sweat shirt with red and brown stains. He is now in jail in Massachusetts on murder charges, awaiting an extradition hearing next month.

At a time when the United States is tightening its borders, how could a man toting what appeared to be a bloody chain saw be allowed into the country?

MAY 12, 2005: Police in Mattapoisett praised for arrest

MAY 22, 2005: Police dispatcher in Quincy commended

Bill Anthony, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said the Canada-born Despres could not be detained because he is a naturalized U.S. citizen and was not wanted on any criminal charges on the day in question.

Anthony said Despres was questioned for two hours before he was released. During that time, he said, customs agents employed "every conceivable method" to check for warrants or see if Despres had broken any laws in trying to re-enter the country.

"Nobody asked us to detain him," Anthony said. "Being bizarre is not a reason to keep somebody out of this country or lock them up. ... We are governed by laws and regulations, and he did not violate any regulations."

Anthony conceded it "sounds stupid" that a man wielding what appeared to be a bloody chain saw could not be detained. But he added: "Our people don't have a crime lab up there. They can't look at a chain saw and decide if it's blood or rust or red paint."

Sgt. Gary Cameron of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police would not comment on whether it was, in fact, blood on the chain saw.

On the same day Despres crossed the border, he was due in a Canadian court to be sentenced on charges he assaulted and threatened to kill Fulton's son-in-law, Frederick Mowat, last August.

Mowat told police Despres had been bothering his father-in-law for the past month. When Mowat confronted him, Despres allegedly pulled a knife, pointed it at Mowat's chest and said he was "going to get you all."

Police believe the dispute between the neighbors boiled over in the early-morning hours of April 24, when Despres allegedly broke into Fulton's home and stabbed the couple.

Fulton's daughter found her father's body two days later. His car was later found in a gravel pit on a highway leading to the U.S. border. Despres hitchhiked to the border crossing.

After the bodies were found on the afternoon of April 26, police set up roadblocks and sent out a bulletin that identified Despres as a "person of interest" in the slayings, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

The bulletin caught the eye of a Quincy police dispatcher because it gave the suspect's Massachusetts driver's license number, missing a character. The dispatcher plugged in numbers and letters until she found a last known address for Despres in Mattapoisett. She alerted police in that town, and an officer quickly spotted Despres.

In state court the next day, Despres told a judge that he is affiliated with NASA and was on his way to a Marine Corps base in Kansas at the time of his arrest.

After the case was transferred to federal court, Despres' attorney, Michael Andrews, questioned whether his client is mentally competent.

Fulton's friends in Minto, a village of 2,700 people, told the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal that he was a popular musician, a guitarist known as the "Chet Atkins of Minto" and a 2001 inductee in the Minto Country Music Wall of Fame.

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Megan, Megans Mom and the Fargo.  Read more!

This chick was called sherbert pants by our group for her lime green capris. Fucking hilarious.  Read more!

How much do Jockeys make?   Read more!

This jockey had his 800th win. He didn't really enjoy all the attention he was getting for it, but it was comical to watch these people make a big deal out of it.  Read more!

Emerald Downs Race Track is whack! Read more!

What a day for the ponies!!! Read more!

The famous John Steward catching up on some thinking. Read more!

Feet First's Fearless Leader David working on the bus while I was snoring! Read more!

Me outside of the Marcuse Dance Studio where we had a great catered meal provided by choices market... Mmmmm good. Read more!

The False Creek ferries-- we rode these over to Yale town. Read more!

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Watching the PI reporter jot some notes down. (She was doing this the whole time Gord spoke!) Read more!

Listening to bit more about the city trip we are about to go on. People from Allied Arts, the PI, Vulcan and SDOT are all pictured here. Read more!

The Train station-- We took the Amtrak up from Seattle. Read more!

Gordon Price, fearless tour leader and his assistant for the day. Read more!

These are all various shots from the developing the walkable city tour that we took of Vancouver on 06.03.05. Read more!

Feet First Developing the Walkable City

On Friday, the event that I have spent the last several months working on came to an end with a bash. Developing the walkable city was an event designed to take a group of developers, community members, government people, etc up to vancouver to see how a place like Vancouver develops itself into the community that it is today.
For me, I think the experience was different than most that went on the tour because I have more of a love for Vancouver than most any other city that I have lived in or visited more than a couple of times. To me, Vancouver represents the idea city. A little expensive, but also very user friendly.
Seattle, has the potential to be so much more than Vancouver in a number of ways, but the problem has always seemed to be the same--the people in charge of making decisions do not actually do so, politicians do not form together and set a list of common goals to move the city in a positive direction--instead, they seem to sit ideally by and let process take precidence over judgement.
Developers need to be lobbied by community leadership that will say that you can build smartly, the city will cooperate if you build with intellegent design. It is an interesting parellel to get involved in. Developers want to develop land to make money. Community leaders want smart developments that allow for a stronger community process to take place. Politicans want to make sure that process is followed and that the people are heard through their elected leadership. Seems easy enough on paper, but the difficulty is getting all the different people together to work out smart resolve. Going on this trip showed where the difficulty comes in and most of it comes from the personality and career angles. To be realisitic, developers are not going to listen to non-profits if they dont have to because they speak a different language. A developer would not mind building pedestrian friendly buildings if they were able to make more money and not have to deal with as much regualtion, but it seems as soon as people are ready to pay attention to developing smart projects, then everyone with a cause comes a knockin and it holds up the process.
What seems to need to happen is that a coalition needs to be formed that takes into account public input regarding proposals to the city to speed up their process. Once these two colloborate, the next step is to work with government to move process along.
Seattle needs to make some major changes downtown if it ever plans to grow.

I will be adding more to this in the future, but I am excited to add the pics and go riding today, so I must rap this up. Read more!