I found this Cicada, newly emerged from its old shell, in our front yard. We always called them locusts growing up - here’s more information on these fascinating insects: Cicada (they aren’t locusts by the way)

I was very happy with the purchase of my shiny new canopy. I even got a chance to use it at the last art show in Covington (worked like a charm, by the way). The second time I used it however, it broke.

It was at my son’s first birthday party two weekends ago. The tent was setup over a table in the yard to fend off the mean, old sunshine. And it was a hot day at that, until along came a thunderstorm which quickly gathered water in a slackened section of canopy, building up enough weight until: “Crash!” “Bam!” “Calamity!” I even heard the crack as the canopy collapsed in on itself. Sad. Very sad.

File this one under “and the wife just shakes her head . . . again.”

One of my favorite things to eat is cereal. It’s a natural breakfast food; it works great as a snack [in milk or even dry]; and if I’m fortunate enough to have extra space in my stomach by the end of the day, it’s a great midnight snack. My favorite cereals are generally low in sugar - as a kid I’d douse my Cornflakes with sugar but now I find that Cornflakes and other cereals are actually sweet enough on their own.

For some reason, several years ago, I started mixing my cereal. It all started with Raisin Bran: not liking the overabundance of raisins, I mixed my own Bran Flakes with my own raisins and Voila! But since then it’s escalated. My wife laughs when she sees me making multiple trips from the pantry to the counter top to the fridge, carrying armloads of cereal boxes, raisins, peanuts, milk, oats, etc. This morning for instance, it took me three trips to gather all my ingredients [three more return trips after their use].

Ingredient list:
Honey Nut Cheerios
Bran Flakes
Corn Flakes
Nutty Nuggets [Grape Nut's off-brand]
unsalted peanuts
raisins
milk
[and a black coffee chaser]

You may be wondering [as does the wife] “Why mix your cereals?” To that I can only respond, “Because I can. [crunch, crunch, crunch]”

By the way, I usually end up premixing my cereal, storing it in large [empty] pickle jars for easy, one-trip goodness. If you have a favorite cereal or a golden combination of cereals, leave a comment and let us know about it!

This year I started organizing my life a little more (motivated by David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” system), and I thought I’d post a quick update for anyone interested. I am still on track with it all - even though the geek-fueled, initial motivation has faded away, I am left with a daily system that consistantly satisfies the geek within. Perhaps this sytem wouldn’t work with everyone, but surely many aspects of it are compatible with every personality type. The best part about it that I’ve observed is that when I procrastinate (yes, it still happens frequently), instead of wasting mindless hours of [insert favorite time wasting activity here], I tend to switch to another task on my list . . . busy work, perhaps, but something that needed to get done anyway (that’s why I put it on the list, afterall).

Go figure: if throughout the day I find myself doing a lot of housework it’s usually (ironically) because I’m being a slacker.

These are older paintings I got back from the Louisiana Furniture Gallery - it’s spring - time for a little spring cleaning - everything must go! hehe. Seriously though, think of this as a garage sale - I’ll give you a suggested price but feel free to offer a lower or higher amount; if you want it either say so in a comment to this post or email me at wess@wessforeman.com. The proceeds will be put to good use - paint supplies! Anything unsold will be primed over and re-used. All are unframed unless noted - oh, and shipping cost not included, and I reserve the right to sell to the highest bidder! On to the paintings:

“Island Paradise” [left] is an oil, 18×24″, sugg: $40

“West Texas Sprawl” [right] is an oil, 18×24″, sold

“Untitled Crowd 2″, acrylic and oil, 16.5×39.5″, sugg: $60

This one never left my studio [garage] - in fact I just signed it today. It’s painted on slightly wavy hardboard.

“Desert Landscape”, oil, 11×14″, sugg: $25

[left] “Crabbing”, acrylic, 36×24″ framed, sugg: $150

[right] “Invisible Dan”, acrylic, 36×24″ framed, painted over and gone forever :)

Several years ago I built this very computer on which I’m typing. Since then I built one for my mother and one for my brother and assisted my cousin in building his own. I’ve tinkered with three or four older models around the house, trading parts and trying different operating systems, never satisfied with leaving “well enough” alone in regards to computers. So all of this I’ve disclosed as background information to my present dilemma: I’m itching to upgrade once again.

I’ve thought it all out — a four-phase roll out plan, each stage following the next in logical order, the first phase being the most expensive but offering the greatest increase in performance [a triple bypass operation concerning the motherboard, ram and cpu].

So here I am, the situation clear: I need a goal to reach, something just lofty enough to warrent a phase-one reward [that's all I ask]. For the reward is waiting; it cannot be ignored for long. The reward is waiting.

It’s February, six months after Hurricane Katrina came through, devastating the gulf coast and overwhelming the levees of New Orleans. My wife and I were among the lucky ones; our house and pets were unharmed, and life has returned to normal. But storms leave scars and Bogalusa is no exception. We still have two large oak trees down in our yard and the vacant lot next to our house [pictured below] is a maze of fallen, tangled trees.

Around Bogalusa: fallen trees and automobile-sized rootballs can still be seen along the roadsides; traffic is held up occassionally by tree removal workers; Bellsouth vans are still actively fixing phone lines around town. Some folk are still waiting for insurance checks and many have still not recovered emotionally.

Mostly, life goes on. [I have internet again, as of last month, so I'm happy]

I might have to substitute “podcasts” for one of those words on my list to the right. I just love podcasts. I used to listen to talk radio [like WWL 870 AM out of New Orleans] and then moved to streaming radio [I still listen to the Dave Ramsey Show online]. But podcasts just make so much more sense.

The idea is simple: subscribe to a show [audio or video] and forget about it — whenever content is posted online, it is automatically detected and downloaded by your podcatcher program where it awaits your listening ear.

Early adopters were of course technology junkies so that’s still the dominant catagory [not complaining, mind you, I love technology] but I’m finding great new podcasts every week.

[FYI]Here are the websites of a few of the non-tech-related podcasts I’m subscribed to:

• the Motivation to Move Show
• the Word Nerds
• Reel Reviews Radio
• the Sound of Young America

By the way, I just bought a used MP3 player online [$30 plus shipping] — it’s modest but it works great. That’s all folks.

Banana spiders have appeared in droves. They have spun their webs [their decietful lies] prolifically and in the general vicinity of our front porch. We host these colorful visitors yearly, sure, but this is ridiculous: they have come on like gangbusters.

The wife and I have been discussing the fate of these eight-leggers, as I like to call them. She thinks we need to take action, and I have taken the high road: “Nah,” I say, “let’s not disturb them — banana spiders are people too.” [I may have overstated things]

For now the spiders remain untouched, un-swept-away- with-a-broom. They are friendly enough, afterall. [I may give them all names.]