What Makes Me Sad

So I got depressed a couple of days ago when I heard some disturbing news. It seems that when President Bush signed the revamped version of the Patriot Act into law earlier this year that he issued another one of his signing statements, basically saying how he interprets the law and how he will apply it. The signing statement for this law basically said that Bush will ignore the Congressional oversights that the law requires to protect the rights of citizens whenever he chooses. Which is basically Bush flipping the bird to some of his fellow Republicans and many Democrats in Congress because the Patriot Act was in danger of not being renewed because of concerns that there were no Congressional oversights in place. After those oversights were put in the law passed. And now we get Bush saying the law doesn't apply to him. He's done the same thing over and over again since he took office. The other notorious time was when the McCain bill banning torture got passed. Bush fought tooth and nail to block it but he failed. Seeming to concede defeat, he invited McCain to the signing ceremony, said what a good bill it was (now who's the flip-flopper?), and signed away. Then when no one was around, he issued a signing statement that said he could ignore the law if he chose to. This is friggin' ridiculous. People keep saying how long Bush has gone without vetoing a bill, but he doesn't have to veto it if he can sign it and issue a statement that says it doesn't apply to him. He has done this some 500 times, using the signing statement more forcefully than any president before him. What happened to the Rule of Law? That great indicator of democracy that says everyone is equal under the law and no one, not even our leaders, are above the law.

Speaking of democracy. It seems over the past week or so a man in Afghanistan who had converted to Christianity some 16 years ago is about to go under trial for doing just that, converting to Christianity. Under the Afghani constitution that was put in after the ousting of the Taliban, Sharia (which I'm assuming is some kind of religious law) law is the supreme law of the land and converting to Christianity is punishable by death. Since when is that democracy? Since when is that the "freedom that is on the march" that Bush always talks about in Iraq? What has actually changed in Afghanistan? Ok, so they can vote, but it seems they just get to elect who will persecute them next. That ain't no democracy! Well, you'll be glad to know the man was released and has taken asylum in Italy. But still, the very fact that this actually happened is appalling. And that is the reason of my discontent.

Richard

new due date

We obviously cannot count, so we were a little off on the due date. Since having the sonogram, we have been informed that I am now due October 24th. This is 6 days after Richard's birthday and 8 days before Erin's birthday. So I have decided not to get either one a birthday present this year...other than a new son/daughter and a new niece/nephew. So mark your calendars for October 24th! I just hope he/she gets here as close to the due date as possible...I have a wedding to go to in November!!!!

First Baby Pic

Here is the first picture of our baby!! S/He looks more like a butterbean or a peanut than a person right now. We go back for another sonogram in 4 weeks and we should know if its a boy or a girl in about 9-12 weeks.

TWO LINES!

I never expected there to be two lines! But as I looked at the pregnancy test on the counter I realized that the unexpected just became reality. I called the doctor the next day (Valentine's Day) to make an appointment. Thinking that it could be a kidney infection, I waited about 3 days and took another pregnancy test (different brand). This time there was a plus sign screaming at me, "You're pregnant!!" Well, today I went to see my doctor. She decided that my due date would be September 23rd. So Richard and I are going to be parents! I wonder how tall he/she will be.

This one is funny

We both agree this video is funny. Search Google videos for "Blair + Bush at the gay bar".

Now that's good times.

That didn't work

Alright so that link doesn't work. Go to Google video (if you don't know how to get there go to google.com, click on more and then click on video) and then search for curry-n-rice girl. it's funny!

Putting It To A Vote

Click on the link below (i hope this works) and tell us if what you see is funny or not. Emily thinks it's stupid but i think it's hilarious.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4532245984549289375&q=curry-n-rice+girl&time=10000

Senseless yammering

I was wearing one of my aqua teen hunger force t-shirts tonight and realized how much i have missed the adult swim block of tv on cartoon network. so here are some fun quotes from some of my favorite episodes:

"don't put that wet towel on my computer!"
"i'm gonna!"
(that one's for corrie)

"have you seen a woman in a bikini around here?"
"you mean the beer promo from the liqour store?"
"um yeah."

"rabbit troop sucks!"
(another one for corrie)

anyway, another watercolor posted, this one of ventress hall at ole miss. and a woodcut posted. not telling you what it means, you gotta do that for yourself. it's up to you to decide if it means anything, as with all art.

richard

One more time

Here is our first Christmas tree (notice the down comforter bed skirt). And a watercolor of the side of my grandparent's house........Hopefully.

We register for classes this week. On my agenda is printmaking, curriculum development, and figurative watercolor painting. And in case you were wondering, no, there are no nude models in art classes at MC, Christian college ya know. The professors are talking with administration to see if we can at least get models in bathing suits or tights.

We had air-popped popcorn in our brand new air-pop popcorn popper (say that 3 times fast). It was bought with the gift card I found in my wallet last week. I didn't even know it was there. I'm cleaning my wallet out more often!!!

Richard

OK so I lied.

Yeah, in the last post I said it would be a few days before we posted again and you can see how long ago that was. Anyway. We took a family photo in front of our first Christmas Tree and I tried to upload it along with some of my paintings but the painfully slow dial up just won't let me tonight. Maybe next time.

Our Christmas was great. It was spread over about 2 weeks so we could visit both of our families. That was nice, getting gifts for 2 weeks.

Classes start back in a couple of weeks so we are getting a long holiday. Emily made A's in her classes. I haven't gotten my grades because I owe five bucks in overdue library book fines.

We went out with a friend of ours tonight and ate sushi. Mmmmmmm....crawfish roll.....glaaaaahhhaaaaaaaa....oh hang on...got a little drool. There we go.

Finally we would like to congratulate Corrie Tyner on her wonderful news. I think she has a blog (corrietyner.blogspot.com) so go check that out! Good night.

Richard

Long time no blog

Yeah so things have been hectic here...at least for me. I thought I had 8 paintings due thursday and I knew I had 3 prints due wednesday night so I've been working like crazy to get those done, get mats cut for them, go to work, walk the dog, and spend quality time with my lovely wife (love ya baby!). But no. The paintings are due NEXT thursday! So I missed out on being able to write my research paper draft so my instructor could proof it before I turn it in to be graded because I was painting for nothing! NOTHING!!!!! At any rate, things will slow down next week when the semester is over and I'll get some pics of my work from this semester onto the site.

Richard

PS- Wyatt bought an electric bicycle kit so he could turn his pedal bike into an electic bike. It's awesome! It can go about 20 miles on a charge and costs 50 cents to go 100 kilometers (i think). You have to give it a little peddling to get some momentum, but then you can hit the throttle and off you go! It's really fun to go up hills and watch people wonder how you can go uphill without peddling. Google Wilderness Energy (I think) if you want to know more.

This is one of my (Emily's) favorite pictures taken at our reception. We have been married almost a year. Wow! How time has flown! It really seems as though we just got married. We aren't pros yet, but we're getting the hang of being married.
We are looking for the great group shot from the wedding, but haven't found it in our proofs. We might have to unframe our copy just so they can be a part of our blog. They deserve a shout-out. Hopefully, we can take a break from studying (a big "yeah right" for the idea of Emily studying) and give our wedding party a proper write-up.

HAPPY 24th BIRTHDAY RICHARD!
I like the way you move! :)
Love, Emily

Oh yeah, this thing.

Alright so life has been too busy for me to update this thing. And if I have had any free time it has been devoted to Sims 2. Everything's going OK. I've got lots of work to do in my classes but it's good because they are pushing me. I've got a series of woodcuts I'm doing for one class that'll be done later in the semester so maybe I'll put the scans up here when I'm done. Anyway, I have to go to amazon.com and buy books on kathe kollwitz. Google her, she's awesome!

Richard

Aftermath

Hurricane Katrina came through a week ago. Not a lot of damage was done to Ridgeland. Some trees down, fences gone, occasional roof damage to homes and businesses, but nothing serious. We received heavy winds and rains. Our power went out Monday around noon. Emily and I had prepared for loss of power, water, gas and everything else, but we were not prepared for the boredom. You can only stare out the window waiting for the wind to knock down the tree in front of your balcony for so long. We played a game of Scrabble and for the first time ever I was able to use all 7 of my tiles in one move. I used them to make the word "remedial". We played Monopoly and Yahtzee. But mostly we worried about Emily's parents. Her mom was on duty at Gulfport Memorial during the hurricane. Her father was holed up with their dog Ginger at their rental house in Diamondhead. We were only able to hear news on them from other people because the phones were so crazy. Emily didn't get to speak to them until Wednesday I think. They were fortunate not to lose anything. They came to see us this weekend and we had a good reunion. I'm finally getting to go back to work and school tomorrow. I was stuck in the apartment for the week because there was no school and no power at work and I didn't want to use gas to drive around town. I was able to get some fresh air this weekend though. Anyway, things are settling down here. We were only without power for about 24 hours. We checked the thermostat when the power came back on and it was almost 90 degrees in the apartment! The gas scare is settling down. Fortunately Emily and I both had full tanks before the hurricane so we haven't had to wait in long gas lines. But I'll leave it at that for now.

Richard

Grad School

Well, we started grad school last week. We had to go to campus to register for our classes. That was awful. I can't believe Miss. College makes you register in person. The chair of the art dept. told me they might wake up to the 21st century soon and do telephone registry! Telephone registry? The telephone is so early to mid 1900s. What happened to internet registration? Anyway, not much else to tell except we are excited about going back to school. I'm looking forward to all of the new art stuff I'll be learning. Anyway, that's all I can think to say for now. I'll try to post some pictures....again.

Richard

The Spoils of Dumpster Diving

So there used to be a silk screen T-shirt shop across the street from the gallery. You know the type. It's literally a sweat shop because the owners are too cheap to pay for air conditioning and about all they make are T-shirts for the local little league teams. It closed about 9 months ago so all the equipment has been sitting in there until the owner found a new tenant to rent the building to. Well it seems he has found another person to open...wait for it....another T-shirt shop. So of course he promptly hires somebody to bag up all of the supplies and trash in the store and leave it on the side of the street for the city garbage men to clean up. Naturally, Wyatt Waters and I are watching him the entire time to see if he's throwing out anything good and waiting for him to leave.

Once he's gone, Wyatt and I venture across the street to see the goods. Mostly trash, cardboard boxes, and other various useless crap. But I was able to find a lot of leftover silk screen ink that I will hopefully be able to make good use of. I also found a stamp the old T-shirt shop used to put their logo, phone, and address on envelopes.

Now remember before you go dumpster diving that the rules are much the same as they apply to 4th Amendment searches and seizures. If the garbage is under the curtilage of the house (basically the roof, front porch, immediately around the house) you have no rights to it. However, if the garbage is beyond the curtilage of the house, say in the street or near the street, then it is most likely fair game.

Well, until next time, happy dumpster diving!!!!!! (I am in no way responsible for anything bad that happens to you in the process of dumpster diving ranging from tetanus from that rusty nail to the guy with the shotgun who changes his mind about throwing out those old TV guides. However, if you come across some primo goods like some golf clubs or hip retro furniture, I expect my fair share!)

Richard
PS- Hopefully some photos from our honeymoon show up (Portofino Bay Hotel at Universal Studios Orlando)

Thad Cochran came to get me!!!!

So I guess ol' Thad Cochran saw my post about framing him because he showed up at the gallery today. I was just minding my own business reading 'the boondocks' when these black SUVs with tinted windows pull up out front. Then these big guys in suits jump out and come in and check everywhere, holding their hands to their ears to listen in on their mics.....wait a minute!!!!....those are Agents!!!! Where's Morpheus when you need him?! Just kidding. There were no SUVs and suits. Just Thad in a rental car. And he didn't come to see me, he just came to get some prints of the portrait that Wyatt had painted of him. He hadn't even heard of me and my framing of him (I know b/c I asked....not really). But I still got to meet Thad Cochran, one of the most, if not the most powerful Senator in Congress. He's in charge of appropriations (appropriations = money = power). I may not agree with him politically but he was a nice guy. He talked about his grandkids and how he hated to see LSU beat Ole Miss in football.

Hmmm...I just tried to post some pictures but it "couldn't find the server." I'll try next time.

Bye

Thad Cochran

I framed Thad Cochran today. Ha ha! Republican party fear me!!! I've got the dirt on ol' Thad. Nah. I work for Wyatt Waters and all I did was frame a portrait he had painted of Thad, but it sounded fun!

That sounds like a good start to our blog. Welcome. Hopefully we will keep up with this and not let it get covered in the digital cobwebs of the internet. If anyone doesn't know Emily and I, we are a newlywed couple living in Ridgeland, MS. We live with our young puppy, Tobey.

Our new apartment is great. There is lots of running room for Tobey and a fireplace for Emily to hang her bridal portrait. It's funny how people put some of their most expensive and treasured items at the place that receives the most fire damage if the fire gets out of control. We also have separte sinks so she doesn't have to put up with all of my toiletries...and vice versa.

Both of us are starting grad school on August 23rd. Emily is getting a Master's in Education and I am getting a Master's of Fine Arts. We are both excited about going back to school. We both plan on teaching after those degrees are completed in about 2 years.

Well, I'm going to end this here and try to post some pictures.
Bye.

Richard and Emily