recieved a very amusing solicitation in the mail while i was gone...while i don't usually care much for that sort of thing, this one made me laugh my ass off...it was sent to me by one of the local county sheriffs on behalf of the Sheriff's Association of Texas...here are some selected exerpts, beginning with the opening sentence:
I am writing you because I believe you are a law abiding citizen who has worked hard for what you have. I also believe you are tired of people who turn to crime as an easy way to make a living with little responsibility to society.
I would like to invite you to become an Associate Member of the Sheriff's Association of Texas for just $20.00. your anuual dues will be used to support crime prevention...encourage peace officers' participation in educating our youth about the dangers of drugs and the arrest and prosecution of drug traffickers...
Your Associate membership includes...
Information you won't get anywhere else...
Associate membership card for your wallet.
Two window decals...
etc. etc. etc.
After i stopped laughing, several things crossed my mind, and i of course wanted to share those things with you all.
1) Could they not take the time to edit the letter for correct grammar, punctuation, and sentance structure?
2) Could they not verify that i was in fact a law abiding citizen before sending this out? I ask this, because i have a life long history of amassing traffic warrants on unpaid tickets, and was arrested for possession of marijuana. I believe that this negates my qualification as law abiding.
3) Successful criminals work just as hard as the rest of us.
4) Are you educating, or arresting our youth, or both. My youth, btw, is long past.
5) There is always more than one way to get any information.
6) My wallet is sufficiently cluttered, and i don't use decals on my car or home.
nice to get a few laughs, even if that was not their intent.
i went ahead and scanned/selected/cropped/named/resized the first batch of slides from the roll i shot just before leaving on my trip...they were from the part of the roll shot in hopes of adding to my Reflections series...i liked seven of them enough to add to the gallery, and hope you will enjoy them as well...they can be found in the Reflections Album...so please go check them out, and as always your comments are welcomed.
i shot 6 rolls of film while on the trip, 5 of which were black & whites of scenery...more r less my usual type of stuff...i will be getting them back from the lab in the next few days...i also got a roll of slide film back i shot just before leaving...as you can guess, i will be very busy of the next week or so scanning and cropping pics, and will have lots of new stuff to add to my gallery as i get them done...will post updates, as i add new stuff for those who are interested.
well i'm back from my trip...i had a great time and visited until i dropped...i will be writing some entries with more details, but just wanted you all to know that i was back, and back at it.
well, i actually did it...i'm ready to go...finished everything i needed, and wanted to get done before my trip...bags are packed up and just waiting to go to the airport...amazing how much you can do in a few days of concentrated panic mode working...anyway, i will be back in a couple of weeks and will be letting you all know how my trip went...wish me luck
only three more days till my trip...i think i am actually going to get everything done that needs doing before then, or at least i hope so...still pretty nervous about traveling, as it has been over 5 years since the last time i went anywhere, and i'm not the person i was back then...also excited about seeing the family...i've been burning my mp3 archives to cd so i can share them with my brother, and really hadn't realized how big it was and how long it would take to do...i am up to 25 cds of files so far, most of which are 675 meg or more each, and extimate anoter 10 or 15 to completion...that is a lot of music :)
didn't leave myself enough time to get everything done before going to NY with out going into panic mode...so i am in panic mode big time, trying to get it all done, and still keep up with ongoing stuff...will be trying to get another entry or so in before leaving...just have to see how it all goes.
while trying to catch up on my blog reading list, i found a couple of entries, If You Can't Beat 'Em...., and Join 'Em on Ith's Blog...i of course had to go play with the mapping toy just for the fun of it...i am not putting my maps up here, because i don't want the slower page loads caused by adding images in osts...the two that are part of my index are a necessary evil, but i refuse to add any more....i like my pages to load as quickly as i can get them to....i was going to add my maps to her entries as comments, but feel guilty about making someone elses blog load slower on my account....i did enjoy the toys though, and recommend you go try them for yourself....thanks Ith for the fun diversion.
thank you very very much Aldahlia for your journal entry, aldahlia: Shameless Advertising...it is awsome having other people giving our Web Hosting Service apositive, and unsolicited plug...we truly appreciate you helping us to spread the word, especially when you did it just because you wanted to...you are a kick ass friend....we miss you guys, and wish we could be hanging out, but that's hard when you're in cali, and we're still in texas...at least we get to keep in touch via blogs, emails, and the occasional call...everyone should have friends like you, i'm glad we do.
thank you Jane for the new, well new for me printer....she made me a very cool and serious offer in response to my totally goofy entry Spare Printer Anyone?....she had an epson 880 in great condition that she was willing to trade for a print of one of my abstracts...we worked out the details, and i now have a decent printer for doing all my various print work up to letter size...this saves me the hassle of walking into the house every time i print something, and more importantly saves wear and tear on our hp cp1700....i immediately tested it out by printing some more business cards, and one of my manipulations, and it worked beautifully.....whooop...oh joy.
of course i am still trolling for anyone willing to buy or give me that epson photo stylus 2200 i need to be able to do 13x19, and 13x44 prints of my photos and graphics, assuming anyone ever buys prints of my art in that size.
my girlfriend's Vincent D'Onofrio WebSite For Fans has been getting visitors from around the world almost since day one of it being up...lately for some reason that neither of us can figure out, she has been getting a large number of visitors from germany, or at least we assume they're from germany, leaving entries in German in her guestbook...it is amusing, but frustrating, as neither of us speaks or reads german...we have tried using Google's Language Tools to translate the entries, but they don't quite seem to translate correctly...while we get the jist of what they were saying, there are some puzzling mistranslations leaving us wodering what was truly said...if any of you read german and would like to translate for us, please feel free to do so.
there have also been some funny typos, and/or non-english natives entries which we think we know what they meant, but what they said was something else...my favorite one so far is this one:
"Hello, a very nice site with awful content. Thank you!"
i will be going to New York soon to visit with my family, and meet my new niece...i'm very excited, but also somewhat anxious (being bipolar is such a pain at times)...anyway, i will leaving on the 12th, which is next thursday, and returning on the 24th...i may have accessto the net, allowing me to keep up with the blog, but probably won't be able to do so...if i can i will update while there...meanwhile i will continue to update as i can until leaving...though preparing for the trip will mean less time for it...let ya all know how it goes.