So I’m finally getting around to posting pics of the Stone Patio Project, which have been much demanded by family and friends. In case you don’t know, I sought to laydown some very nice limestone squares in my currently grassy backyard. I think it turned out “good enough” which was sort of the motto of the project. Keep in mind, I have NEVER done anything in regards to building EVER. Soooo yeah…

We start off with the yard as is with grass and all

And here’s the view of the patio

That’s Ross helping hammer in the lining stakes, alas he has since moved back to Minnesota

The outline is done

Now comes the digging. (That’s Mike!)

I get to handle the power trimmer. I had the shakes for a week after that

That there’s a nice lookin hole!

The piles are building

One of a few rained out days

Here comes all the gravel and sand from Home Depot

And here’s all the paver stones. Notice some come with a rustic flare of brokenness

Must go deeper!

Oh now that’s a hole

With some huge piles on all sides

Had to wheel each of the 311 bags of gravel and sand 6 at a time to the backyard

compacting the ground to be “level” -ish

Lookin good

Now, we’re laying down the organic weed guard which we’ll find out later actually goes over the next layer of gravel, not the ground

Laying out bags of gravel on top of that

Fully covered

And Presto, they’re all rocks! Yeah, cause it was just that easy

There’s Jake and his stache lending a hand too

Compacting the gravel

Now after going to the store countless times to get more weed lining to put a second layer over the gravel, we lay the sand bags

And here’s the trail the wheel barrel made to the backyard, killed all the grass

converting bags to sand

trying to smooth out the sand with the scree

Compacting the sand

Starting to lay the stone

So close!

My poor poor hands

had to fill in the corners with extra dirt when I realized I needed a wet saw to cut stone, so had to change the plan to circle off the end

almost done

Still have to compact the stone down by hand or rather by foot

It is at long last FINISHED!

A many thanks to those who helped out, especially Mike and Jake!

• Setting up Twitter for my blog! #

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Looks like Texas is the place to be in this economy. All you Cali kids should move on over here.

By Patti Domm Executive Editor | 23 Oct 2008 | 06:14 PM ET

Thousands are losing their jobs at Merck. Thousands more are being cut at Xerox, Yahoo, Chrysler and General Motors.

Those companies were in the news just this week, and they weren’t alone. Corporate America is now following the lead of Wall Street, where tens of thousands have lost jobs, many of which will never return. The question, though, is this: As the layoffs add up, how bad will unemployment be in this recession? And what does that mean in terms of when and how the economy will recover?

It really is a different job market this time, and that might be a slight positive for workers, economists say. For one, there was no big ramp-up of new employees ahead of this economic downturn. But there are plenty of other factors that make this job environment more worrisome. One of those issues is the fact that there’s no turnaround in sight for housing, which can only aggravate job losses.

“You have a very broad-based decline in payrolls. The only good thing is that businesses did not seem to have aggressively hired during the boom. It never got to the point where there was hiring in advance or panic hiring,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s economy.com. That contrasts to the period prior to the dot-com bust, when companies were luring workers to internet companies with signing bonuses.

“The other unique feature of this is how broad-based these job cuts are. In other times, they were focused in a region or two,” he said. “By our calculation, there are 27 states in recession. Fifteen are close. It’s a much broader downturn than has been the case historically. That’s an issue to how these economies can adjust to all of these shocks.”
Typically, people have picked up and moved to another part of the country when times have gotten tough. Not this time, Zandi said. “There’s really no place to go. The only big economy that’s doing well is Texas.

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* Slideshow: Riskiest Jobs for Layoffs
* Jobs At Risk of Being Shipped Offshore
* States with Highest Unemployment Rates
* Recession proof Jobs

Morty walked with a limp. His back ached from carrying large boxes from truck to palette and from palette to truck. He’d been working as a loader, mover, builder, or anything involving transporting large objects from one place to another for his entire life. He hadn’t taken a sick day in 25 years. He took pride in his work, but he was getting up there in years. 60, has it really been that long? he thought to himself.

But it didn’t matter. His birthday was in two weeks. He looked down at the brand on his right wrist. It had the number one with a box around it. He sighed. Soon, it would all be over, and he’d be in Haven. He looked up to the towering skyscrapers. He couldn’t see to the top of them because of the plumes of smog still covering the lower city, but he knew somewhere up there was a shining white palace. A giant house awaited him, with a swimming pool and maybe he’d even find someone with whom it was worth growing old again. She’d have to be from Sector One though. Morty didn’t think he could deal with those spoiled Twos for too long. But he wouldn’t have to. He could live wherever and however he wanted.

“Hey Morty, what’s da hold up der?” came the voice of his foreman standing over the railing.

“Sorry, boss. I wandered off for a second.” He limped back over to the truck and took another box.

His foreman smiled. “I know der man, you only gots two more weeks left. But let’s make dems productive ones right? You don’t want to get up der and be missing an olive in your martini now do yas?

Morty laughed. His foreman was a good man and good at his job. That must’ve been why they appointed it to him. The genetic profiler was hardly ever wrong. But there were some cases. That’s why you had to go back every five years, to make sure you were in the position which was most optimal based on your genetic profile. Machines don’t lie, they calculate. And they run basically everything these days. They’re what allow the human population to be as productive as possible.

When Morty would go to Central Processing to update his genetic profile, he always had a lot of respect for the engineers that worked there. One of their great ancestors probably came up with the Ones and Twos System of Productivity which had allowed human beings to thrive for hundreds of years, all while living happy lives and reducing the Earth’s pollution.

He had heard that most scientists who grow up as Ones actually keep the same job when they become One-Twos because they enjoy it so much. Morty couldn’t understand that. He definitely didn’t enjoy moving stuff so much to do it for his second life, but it did suit him. He couldn’t see himself doing anything else. He knew he wasn’t a smart person, but he was a strong person. Well, he was before his bum leg. But none of that mattered anymore. He’d get a whole new life in two weeks and he knew exactly what he was going to do: nothin’. He sat another box down on the palette and looked at the label, “This side UP.” That’s right. Moving UP in the world.

*THAT’S ALL FOR NOW, THERE WILL BE A NEW CHAPTER EVERY WEEK*

I don’t know if you’ve seen this film by Aaron Russo, but it’s very eye opening, presenting ideas which turn out to be undeniably true like there is no law that Americans must pay income tax.  Furthermore, it is unconstitutional to do so.  An agreement was made in 1913 that wages would be taxed but even though it was never ratified, it was and continues to be enforced by private agencies like the IRS and the Federal Reserve.

I’m a little behind on this one since the movie was released in Oct 2007.  But watch this film, then visit sites like this:
http://www.restoretherepublic.net/home.php
www.freedomtofascism.com
http://www.givemeliberty.org

Here’s some quotes from the film:

• Approximately 67 million people don’t file an income tax return. (Sherry Jackson, Former IRS Agent, in the film 2004)
• The definition of income in the Constitution was given in the Eisner v. Macomber case and it turns on gains or profits that are made from some activity. (Constitutional Law Professor Edwin Vieira, Jr., in film referring to 1920 U.S. Supreme Court decision that defined taxable income as that arising from corporate activity, not wages or income)
• Doyle versus Mitchell, 247 U.S. 179, 1918. Here’s what it said. The idea of gain or increase arising from corporate activities. In other words, it (income tax) doesn’t mean wages. It doesn’t mean dividends. It doesn’t mean alimony. It means a gain or a profit arising from corporate activity. (Irwin Schiff, Tax expert, in interview with Russo in 2004, referring to the U.S. Supreme Court decision that defined taxable income as that arising from corporate activity, not from wages or income)
• Chief among such contracts is that of personal employment by which labor and other services are exchanged for money or other terms of property. (Coppage v. Kansas, 236 U.S. 1.14 [1914] Decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, 1914)
• If Americans just learned that the IRS was actually knowingly deceiving them, then that would be enough for them to rise up and put a stop to it. (Joe Banister, Former IRS-CID, Criminal Investigator)
• The court says if it (labor) wasn’t taxable before the 16th Amendment then it isn’t taxable after the 16th Amendment. (Larken Rose, Tax Honesty, quoting the Supreme Court decision Peck vs. Lowe

Did you know the American government is building internment camps throughout the country and have been doing this for years?  What are they planning to use these camps for?

Welcome everyone to my new site. Took me two weeks to put it together, but it feels pretty good.

As for me, I’m just sitting here in my hotel in Modesto ready to go to sleep so I can get up early and get a flight home;  See my peeps.