What appears below, you will find at the bottom of the page, at least today; it's NASA's Photo of the Day, and I happen to think it's a hoot.


On a more serious note, I did come across another item that REALLY worked my nerves; NPR had a story about an ex-Wall Street investment banker who lost his job and decided to "keep a little money coming in" by substitute teaching a couple days a week. Excuse me?! I thought Moral Bankruptcy and Bad Behavior 101 were curriculum normally taught in the parking lot of your average high school. All I can say to this man, in all honesty, is welcome to my world, motherf**er. Now try living on substitute teaching without the benefit of your little Wall Street "golden parachute." Oh, and a word of advice; don't park your Mercedes in the student parking lot. If it's still there at the end of the day, depending on the school, you might still be minus wheels, glass, seats and all your CDs. Unless you're gonna spend some of that Wall Street money to get your MEd. and teaching certificate, step aside and let the real teachers (the ones with passion, integrity and some amount of pride in what they do,) do the job. This is not where you belong. Beyond that, it's my belief that executives who have lost their jobs in this whole Wall Street debacle should collectively get off their dead a*ses and put some of that industry to work creating jobs and companies on their own terms. Yeah, it's a risk, isn't that what they taught you when you got your MBA? Complacency gets noone anywhere, and just clogs up the Starbucks coffee shops with a bunch of over-50 pre-senior delinquents fretting over whether the economy is going to improve before they have to sell their Harley or need a hip replacement, whichever comes first. Wall Street created this mess, and made a ton of money in the process, it seems to me a top-down philosophy (and, no, this is not to suggest that all the 20-something wives of those ex-execs and bankers do anything relating to doffing their brassieres,) where the people who have the money, (and don't bulls**t me, they're out there,) should be the ones responsible for either paying their fair share of taxes, or doing the hands-on reinvestment in the economy. It's that simple; somebody's gotta stand up, do the right thing and help us all get back on our feet, or we're all scre*ed. I'll get off my soap box now.

Beyond that, if you've been on my Facebook page you will notice I made much to-do about the rather sudden reappearance of one of my artsy buddies whom we had all taken for dead, or at least out of the country. Well, it turns out he was still in the country, alive and well, and married now, still playing music, just like he's always done. He'd probably end up having to do a lot of digging to find some of my artwork, which is buried in the deepest bowels of these very pages, and some which may or may not have appeared before. I swear I'll get some truly new stuff going. On the upside, I fulfilled a promise to an art teacher I had subbed for to burn a copy of my PowerPoint about the BMW Art Cars. She seemed to appreciate my contribution to her learning library, we'll see if her students dig it. As for my buddy Tim, he, (like most other people,) knows me because cars have been my life, even in the several lifetimes it's been since I saw him last. God forbid I should disappoint him. At least right now, many others know I'm not that much of a one-trick-pony.