Click images for desktop size: "Love With A Gun" by Unknown Went out and found some work today.
Not much. Looked for about 3 hours. Worked for about 2 and a half hours. Made twelve bucks.
There were times when twelve bucks looked tiny. Other times when twelve bucks looked even bigger than this. These dollars look only slightly larger than human sized.
I got 7 bucks for one job helping an older guy clear stuff out of his yard and stack it by the curb. Found it in the first 1 hour. Worked for about 45 minutes. He paid me with all the change he had in his pocket - seven dollars. I thought it was fair.
Then I walked around for a bit, let the sweat dry on my body. Finally got on at an apartment complex with the landscaping crew. Worked for about 2 hours, raking, blowing (with one of those heavy gas powered things strapped to my back) and picking up the garbage.
I didn't mind the work. It was tedious so I let my mind go other places.
I came crashing back to reality when the Foreman gave me five bucks . . . I told him I thought he made a mistake, that I'd been working for over 2 hours. He then told me where'd they'd be tomorrow if I wanted to show up . . . Then he just turned his back on me and walked away.
My options were to either look ridiculous, chase after him and slug him. This probably would not have gone well. He had about 2 inches and 40 pounds on me, even if 30 of those pounds were fat.
Or I could get my pack, sling it over my shoulder and walk away, cursing him under my breath and vowing he'd never steal another Tuesday from me. Which is sort of what I did.
With the economy going the way it is there might be a day coming too soon when that five bucks looks bigger than it is.
Walking home I thought about how America has been destroyed by the guys who scream loudly that they're trying to save our country. Someone once said never to trust a man who wear his patriotism like a flag.
All that group appears to have done is fatten
Click images for desktop size: "Crow Dancer" by Unknown themselves on our backs and create a country that has seen the rich get richer and evolve into a tighter and smaller group. Right now they say that 10% of the people in this country have 90% of the wealth.
I remember when these stats were used to explain banana republics and to explain and criticize the poverty and turmoil of a starving peoples.
RoboCop was the first film where it was calmly stated and accepted that Corporations are evil and that they're going to stay that way.
Recently I was stunned to discover that Roger Ailes is the head of the incendiary news department of Fox TV.
Now ignoring the fact that FOX is owned by a Briton who got an astonishingly fast American citizenship so he could own American TV networks and newspapers . . . and send the money out of the country. . . A citizenship that might have gone to someone who actually wanted to live here and be American, who might contribute to society instead of taking from it.
I met Roger Ailes a few times decades ago. Back then he was personal management for some actors I knew.
The last time I met him was at a Hollywood party. The discussion there was how he was quitting show biz. Not really, he was media consulting for Republican Party candidates.
As he espoused their values we couldn't help noticing that all of his new political candidates were extreme right wing and all pretty well established losers. A couple of his former clients noted that he espoused his new clients credentials and suitability for the job in the same tones of fervor he used when pitching one of his clients for a Cheeto's commercial.
I noticed weeks later that all of his clients lost their elections. Ailes must have been good though. Next time I read about him he was handling Presidential campaigns.
Now he's heading a TV news department. He's managed to combine show biz and politics. Pretty nifty. I have no concept or clue as to his sincerity. I mean selling Cheeto's and selling the way we're going to live our lives isn't that big a difference in my mind.
And he's even richer and I'm begging for dollar bills.
By the standards of America 21st Century that means Ailes has been right and I've been wrong.
I miss the days when the bad guys played the same way they do now. With evil, no scruples and a sick joy in the pain and damage they inflict as they ignore the rules and plot endlessly for their own selfish goals. I liked that because a good guy would come along and kick their butts. He wasn't handcuffed by the rules, he relished them and believed that "Right made Might!"
Now there's no more heroes. We all play by the same lack of rules and I don't like it.

Click images for desktop size: "Mahouse Comics" by MC Publications I don't like it near as much as when the lines actually existed and good and bad weren't dependent on the wind of the day.

I got the mp3 leeching problem sorted, I think. Please let me know if anyone has problems.

My friend went to the doctor yesterday. Nothing happened. New doctor who did nothing but talk - not tests or . . . so she has to go back.
No one likes going to the doctor, especially for a second visit that has to accomplish the same thing that the first was intended to.
I know about that.
The important thing is that I was measured at 5' 11 and 1/2 inches. She was 5' 4 and 1/2 inches.
This means I win the all important height war by a handy margin. Even though I wonder where I lost that 1/2 inch I always used to have with me . . .