no longer too cool

so i've decided im going back to school this fall. i graduated high school 5 years ago and have minimal college credits to show for it. granted i've gotten to do more cool things in those 5 years than some people do in a lifetime, but still...cool experiences don't pay for a car or provide for a family or buy a house. so...back to school i go. i've decided to pursue my forestry degree. that way i can make a career out of wildland firefighting. you can be a fireman without an education, but with no hope of promotion. so...wish me luck, cyber-friends.

some images from our trip to montana

reason 17 of 238 why politicians are scum

so how much money gets spent on campaigns between all of the candidates. millions, surely. hundreds of millions, probably. billions, frighteningly. they spend all of this money on grade school-mindset, mudslinging television advertisements. motorcades comprised of SUV's and limos. and then they stand on television wearing their 5000 dollar suits and 500 dollar haircuts talking about how their isn't enough money. think of all the things they could do with that money. they could rebuild every home destroyed in new orleans. they could build thousands and thousands of parks. they could put a million kids through college. they could provide the health care that so much of the country lacks. they could provide the food that so much of the world lacks. but they don't do that, do they? they just sit on television talking about how they're going to find the money to help us, while they're spending the money that COULD help us.

bottom line: they don't care about us. not a single one of us. they care about their jobs. they care about their money. they care about their power.
they don't care about us.

what would jack london have to say about us?

drove out to montana saturday-sunday. it's done nothing but rain like a dickens, whatever that means. sometimes the only thing holding our tent down from blowing away in the wind is our bodies inside it. haven't gotten to do much shooting. will post more when i have time.

a tale of complete and glorious vindication

so, the college i work for is undergoing extensive remodeling. so they had me and my fellow grunts moving lots and lots of furniture of all different sizes and shapes from one big room outside to waiting boxcar containers. during our afternoon break i got on the radio and asked cynthia (all names have been changed to protect those involved) what she wanted us to start moving next. she told me specifically that we needed to move the stacks of cubicle walls. there was no misunderstanding. no stuttering. she was very clear. so i relayed this info to my coworkers and we set to moving the 500 pounds of walls for the next two hours. when i was rolling the last load of them up to the container, my boss was standing there wondering why we had moved all of that stuff in there...because it wasn't supposed to be moved. he wanted to know who's idea it was to do so and my coworkers pointed at me, as they should have because that much was true. cynthia, who was standing right there...said nothing. she let me take the fall in a big way. i was very, very angry but held my tounge. so today i did something above and beyond the call of grunt-dom and my boss made the comment "mcclain was right about something again!" i asked him what he meant and he told me that the cubicle walls did after all need to be moved.
so instead of looking stupid for something when it wasn't my fault, i ended up looking smart when i didn't deserve it!
life is good, pass this guy a brew.

barkin dogs, stick trimmers and sunburn

after some 8 weeks of being back here in wisconsin, 4 jobs, and about 10,000 job applications i finally have a solid job. i'm working at Northcentral Technical College (NTC) as a groundskeeper. it's certainly not pretty, but it's a guaranteed 40 a week. the people i work with/for are all very nice, the pay is good, and the work is honest. i'm not a big 1st shift guy, i much prefer showing up at 3 and working til 11 instead of working "normal people" hours. but hey, like i've said, it's a good job.
after sitting on my ass for 2 months, it feels really good to be sore at the end of the day. and it feels even better to crack open a beer, sit down in the garage/gentelmens lounge, and philosophise with my old man.
God is good and so are his many blessings.

an oldie but a goodie

Proof of Reality

if reality can only be proved by our senses, then there is no way to prove reality at all. just because i can see these words doesn't mean they exist. if i was blind, would they still be here? furthermore, being able to see them proves just as little. can i say for a fact that you see what i see when we look at the same thing? therefore, if the only things we are equipped with to monitor reality are completely worthless for proving it, how do we know if anything is real? we can't. the fact of the matter is that reailty isn't a matter of perception at all. it's a matter of choice. reality is what you choose to believe or choose not to believe.