Outside The Box

This is the telephone box [correction: it's the cable box] behind my apartment building. It looks as if someone opened the box door and fired a shotgun through it from behind at point-blank range. This would have left a mark -to say the least- on the facing building as well as the vehicles in the shot's path, mine included. Luckily, I found nothing of the sort.
I have no idea what happened here but my phone still works.
Perhaps it's more wire-tapped than it was before?

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Tonight I made well over a hundred dollars for a single evening's work and I didn't have to blow Eliot Spitzer to get it.
I was the 'Team Lead' for a crew of 15 temps assigned to work at a home foreclosure auction at the Convention Center. The event went very smoothly. Compared to my recent stint as a stagehand, it was a cakewalk; I had a good crew- some of whom I had worked with on other assignments- that helped make my job easy.
Our client informed me that she was very, very pleased with my team and that she would send a note to that effect to my boss. Yeah!
I've already impressed my new boss by repairing a smoking, broken-down vehicle in her parking lot using nothing but a borrowed screw driver - and now I have completed my first 'lead' assignment in a timely and competent manner. I hope my 'roll' continues!

Now for a series of Public Service Announcements:

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Management tip: When you address your staff, do so with clarity and respect and they will do better work for you. This simple approach applies to all but the most incorrigible of worker, yet it is often overlooked by management. Tsk. Try it. C'mon.

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I admit that I have tried the drug mentioned in this article . It was during my last visit to Chicago in 2006. I wasn't going to blog much about it because I do not wish to be in any way responsible for what might happen to an unwary user, nor do I generally wish to encourage drug use, although I do favor de-criminalization of certain things ( whole 'nother post, there).

Regarding salvia divornorum, in my opinion it would be better if most people just didn't know that it exists, but the fact is, people are gonna use drugs, so a little education can't hurt and now that salvia has broken into the mainstream media, I feel obligated to say a few words by way of warning.

Salvia Divinorum is making headlines as the "New Marijuana". It isn't.

Pot smokers pay heed: SALVIA IS NOTHING AT ALL LIKE WEED. DO NOT SMOKE IT CASUALLY. Salvia is the most potent hallucinogenic drug that I have ever taken and I have tried more than my share. No amount of 'chronic' can prepare you for the salvia experience. Salvia is for serious psychonauts only. I tried it alone, but I understand that it is generally considered a bad idea to do so. A sober 'sitter' is recommended. Better yet, don't try it at all.


In my case, my first pair of tiny tokes gave me little more than a warm, happy fuzzbuzz, so I got bored and did a full-size bonghit of the stuff- a powerful 8x extract- and held it in as long as I could...within seconds, the wall of my brother's apartment became an invisible tidal wave and I was swept into a horizontal, 'flying' position and found myself gazing down from above on a flotilla of odd-looking wooden sailing ships, open to the elements, I could see that there were men rowing, some were naked, most in rags...each ship also carried carried soldiers that looked like a hodge-podge of Dungeon and Dragons rejects, not at all like the stereotype Roman Legion, some were shouting but I don't know what was said... fifteen minutes later I was back in the 'real world' with nothing but a mild, mellow buzz to show for my bizarre journey. I had remained sitting upright in a chair the entire time...whew! It was an experience unlike anything I've ever had and I quite enjoyed it.

That being said, I will probably never do it again. The dosages aren't easy to control and I have a feeling that overdoing it would be very, very dangerous. If you are a stoner or have kids who might be dabbling, please be aware of the incredible potency of this stuff. It is no joke.

This article presents a somewhat different view than mine, but I do agree that it shouldn't be made illegal...that would only encourage rebellious kids to seek it out and create yet another black market complete with a corresponding spike in the socially counter-productive incarceration of drug offenders. (A whole 'nother post for that)
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Two questions:

1) Are you registered to vote? If not, tsk...don't complain about BushCo if you were too apathetic to vote against it.

2) Do you have a library card? If not, get one ASAP. You will do yourself and your community a favor when you obtain a card and use it. If library membership and usage increases , it will be easier for libraries to make a case for continued and/or increased funding...a significant number of lower-income people (like myself) depend on our libraries for our reading and other needs, so please do us a good turn and check out a book. Help yourself out by reading it! Mind the due date, please.

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That is all.