The Link for daily use...

When your day is just getting you down....

http://music.channel.aol.com/videos/live_concerts/dave_matthews_band Read more!

If I could dig a whole to China...

Good Morning.
Well, I have been holding back about writing about my latest possibility because it has not been made official as of yet, but it would seem that we are getting closer and closer to the moment where it is going to become official.
I am attempting to go to China to teach English.
I have been in correspondence with a University in the Hunan province for the last 10 days about coming over and teaching English for them on a one year contact. The process has been somewhat tedious in the sense that there is a language barrier at a time where we are trying to negotiate the terms of the contract.
It does appear that I have been officially offered the position as of this morning, but there has not been any official documentation rendered as of yet, but I am now satisfied with what I see that the rest of the negotiation process is going to be operating smoothly.

Here are the details, for those of you that are detail oriented.
Xiangnan University is searching for 4 English Teachers to start teaching from Sept 1, 2005.

Job description:
Courses to teach: oral English, writing, British&American literature, British & American general survey etc.
Contract period: Sept 1st,2005—July 30th, 2006 and renewable based on mutual interests.
16 class hours per week(45 minutes per class hour), if extra class hours are needed, you will be paid at 50RMB yuan per class hour

Benefits:
Monthly salary(RMB):3500,(negotiable if you are better qualified)
Travel allowance: (RMB):2200 on completion of the contract
Free furnished housing (private), facilitated with air conditioner, internet access, TV, DVD player, refrigerator, water heater, phone, and cooking utensils, everyday furniture
Monthly telephone allowance(RMB): 100
Free round trip airfare(currently outside China) or one way trip airfare(currently in China)
Safe insurance

Successful candidates should have
At least a Bachelor’s Degree in any majors of linguistics, literature and education;
Qualification of one of the followings: TESOL, TEFL, ESL;
Minimum two years of working experiences in teaching;
Native English speaker proficiency.

About Xiangnan University:

Located in Chenzhou, Hunan province, Xiangnan University is a public unversity specializing in teachers training and medical science. It consists of 18 departments which offer over degrees in 46 majors covering fields such as art, science, medicine, economics, management, law and so on. It has an enrollment of 15000 full time students. The university has a teaching faculty of 1470 with library book collection of 650,000 volumes.

About Chenzhou city:

Chenzhou, located in the south of Hunan, near to Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, is one of the top tourist cities of China, and is known as the south gate of Hunan and the “Backyard Garden� of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. It has a total population of 4.56million and convenient transportions such as the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway, Beijing-Zhuhai Expressway, National Highway 106 and 107. With over 2000 year’s history, Chenzhou is rich in natural resources. It enjoys such reputations as “Hometown of Nonferrous Metals�, “World Museum of Nonferrous Metals�,“Silver City in China�, “Major Forest Region in Southern China� and “Energy Base for Hunan�. Chenzhou is an ecological kingdom, with abundant tourist resources. Chenzhou is a fast developing tourist city, also a charming and open city.

It almost sounds too good to actually be true, but the more and more the discussions move forward, the more I am seeing that this is a reality. The only difference that I can see from the contract this morning and this is that they reimburse for the airticket 90 days before you are set to arrive home. This makes sense, but I am not certain I can actually afford to do this. Other than that, it would appear that we are getting to the point where this is about to become a reality....

More details later- I actually have to work today so that I can go and get me shots on Wednesday. It's a mad, mad world. Read more!

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!