Skalduggery

Yeah baby, we're making sense now.

Couldn’t help myself. Saw this picture on Facebook ~ yeah, it needs to be up over here too.

Scarecrow Rising

Backfire Satire. Can. You. GET IT?

AmeriKAZAM! is a new entry into both political punditry (but more in the mold of Richard Kahane’s Rules for Radical Conservatives) and Comic Book Reviews… Really, how cool is that? Combining both the comics’ graphics and some biting commentary makes for some fun and enlightening reading. Perhaps you’ll move away from being a SAP (SubParAmerican) and become a participating patriot after a few “boots-to-the-head” commentary. Check out “Making the Stupid Stupider” and spend some time browsing around the new home of Team AK. I think you’ll enjoy it immensely!

Cheers!!

My blogger buddy, Tom over at Responsibility – Freedom Demands It, also operates a small vineyard in addition to his blog, business, etc… apparently the smallest in Oregon! At Calamity Hill Vineyard and Farm, during two wine tasting events, you’ll find a warm and enjoyable experience on a beautiful little piece of real estate! More important, if you’re a pinot gris kind of guy or gal, you’ll find a very nice ’09 and ’10. It’s tasty – I bought six bottles of each 🙂 Follow the links either here or in the video and visit both Tom and Marion’s little vineyard, and the Eola-Amity Hills (AVA) website for a nice look at Tom’s vineyard – and click the “Home” link for the map and a look at a charming little region of Oregon’s wine country.

I asked Tom for permission to use some of the photos and videos my wife and I shot while visiting Calamity Hill during the open house tasting on the day after Thanksgiving. He said yes, and I indulged myself with my video editing hobby and threw together a small video – but it also has photos from different seasons and vistas of the Eola-Amity Hills AVA. More important in this context – I also modified a map I lifted from the Eola-Amity Hills (AVA) website – so click the map thumbnail for a full sized image, or simply visit their website!

Map

Although the weather wasn’t optimal for a walk around the vineyard, we took shelter in a warm and cozy “tent” with fireplace and wine! Watch the video, see how beautiful both the hills and Calamity Hill are, then see about picking up a bottle of wine or three. We know the gris is fantastic with my smoked Coho and herbed pub-cheese!

My apologies for my fascination with the railroad tracks and the three trees… That was my route to and from work for quite some time, and my camera and I were drawn like magnets to the intersection during all seasons of the year! And the video? Right here:

I'm Sorry, I Swear!

I’ve had a few 16 hour days, some of it associated with mandatory overtime. Bummer. That’s why there isn’t a new post up this Monday; however, I will put up a post for this week. My apologies for not keeping up!

Cheers!

Update: Peace offerings… Two great PJ O’Rourke quotes

Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we’re looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn’t test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.

After all, what is your host’s purpose in having a party? Surely not for you to enjoy yourself; if that were their sole purpose, they’d have simply sent champagne and women over to your place by taxi.



My apologies! It seems when I upgraded my theme… all of my modifications and useful little widgets were lost. Call me the FNG that I am when it comes to modifying my site. I am slowly but surely learning the concept of child styles sheets in hopes of preventing this in the future. Please bear with me – and those nifty acronyms? SNAFU = Situation Normal All umm, er, Fouled Up… and FNG? Freakin’ New Guy 😀

Cheers Folks!

Sorry there’s no post this week, but I’ve family visiting from the wrong coast 😉 Though I must confess to a love of New Hampshire and Maine. See you soon!

Cheers all!!

Sorry about the lack of a real post today, Tuesday, but I spent some time in the hospital getting a few tests done. Took a little more out of me than I thought it would. I’ll try to get something out this week as well as next Tuesday. Stay well all.

Cheers!

Why this new iteration of the Skalduggery blog? Why, after ignoring the original at Blogger for so long, would I decide to try again? Kind of a complicated question, but the short answer is because I want to try again. It is a little more complicated than that, but essentially, it is simply something I want to accomplish. A short history, though not entirely explanatory, does at least provide a little background and a very little explanation.

I’ll start at about the time I dropped out of high school: I spent some time as a life guard, a surfer, a ditch digger, a sailor for some twenty years (and thanks to the Navy, a perpetual college student), a security specialist, a night audit clerk, a porn-shop retail clerk, a Certified Nurse’s Assistant (CNA), I framed houses, worked as a programmer, a draftsman, and now… a Corrections Officer. Why work corrections? Two reasons:

First, I went back to college for a master in the administration of justice and security systems. Though I wasn’t sure I could afford the pay cut, a layoff helped me make the decision to afford the pay cut. Yup, I got caught in that great old housing bubble. Fortunately, I already had a job lined up when I was laid off… Corrections Officer.

Second, a book entitled Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing by Ted Conover latched hold of my imagination. While working on my masters one of my professors recommended the book as a worthwhile read, and as a result, I chose corrections over other areas in our criminal justice system.

That’s the short version, and as I complete my posts, the rest will become clear. You see, there are sections of Conover’s book that I believe are dead on, and other areas that I believe could use a little more… clarity? So then, parts of Skalduggery will be aimed at my current job, its relation to some of Conover’s descriptions, current news in criminal justice, and of course, some perspectives other than Conover’s or my own.

As always, I reserve the right to muse on whatever sparkly thing catches my interest, but since it’s my site rather than Blogger’s, I’ll have at least a little more control… once I catch up to technology and figure out how to manage this hosted site – I’m not too proud, so I may be hiring some inexpensive help!

See you soon.