Tennessee Jed

A much happier Jed

2011-09-12T22:26:00.002-04:00

Y'all knew that eventually I would have to post something happier... well, here it is.

Wallowing long enough to be getting comfortable I have connected with someone. We just returned from a lengthy trip to the forgotten coast where we bonded over a near death experience fighting King Neptune in the after effects of a tropical storm. She takes very good care of me and I try to do the same for her. We are hoping to keep it as simple as possible as we have both led complicated lives.

Wish me luck as I continue to try and not make matters worse.

Connected disconnect

2011-08-06T12:50:00.002-04:00

There is this need to reach out and retreat all at the same time with me lately. It brings to mind the lyrics of a song a dear friend wrote... "I try and stay one step ahead of my ghost while I'm burning the bridges that I care about most".

While facing ghost last night I smacked my closest allies right square in the jaw emotionally speaking. Sorry, but not sorry. Connected, but not connected. The moon did come up like a neon lemon and my ghost caught up with me while I paused to feel the heat from the road.

Damn selfishness on my part is the only excuse I can offer. Pure old pride, the gateway to the other seven deadly ones got to me. In the haunting way things like that do... they are... they did.

Beg forgiveness while I bite the hand that feeds me? Yep, sounds about right for a self defeating dog on a long enough leash to get up to full speed before choking hard. Yep, thankful for that long lead, most of the time, the time just before the throat of emotion closes tight.

Trying hard to not make matters worse does not mean achievement at all. No, not at all, recon it is the trying that matters? The key to this blogs tagline "trying"... try and stay one step ahead of my ghost.

New Look for a New Life

2011-05-21T09:53:00.001-04:00

Trying a new look to hopefully not make matters worse.

Observation #: 1,000,001aka turning point

2011-05-15T22:10:00.004-04:00

As I look back at all the devastation I can clearly see the power play and war of wills that went on. I hope we both feel peace soon.

I had a conversation with a friend last night... a great conversation that helped me a lot. A conversation that gave "big picture oversight" to my situation. We spoke about vows, the ones you take in a marriage, the ones you should keep, but forget in your struggle to get what you need to survive. The details set aside are null and unimportant in this line of thought.

LOVE / HONOR / CHERISH

I was not cherishing her enough in her eyes, and she was not honoring me enough in my eyes, but the love was still there. The love is what made us crazy with the other two in terrible imbalance. The troublesome unforgivable acting out on both sides ended the marriage vows and it came from both sides progressively worsening until we reached some invisible point of no return. I regret not being able to see that pivotal point as much as she does.

Now we are in another war of wills, playing the court system game. A further and important point in our "big picture" conversation that sets aside the null details was the conclusion that trying to steal peace from someone never gives you any peace at all. And with that in mind, remembering that time is linear and unidirectional and any time spent being unhappy is time you will never get back.

Enough said for now. Wish me luck as I try to not make matters worse. There has been enough effort on both our sides to make matters worse and end the love part of that vow lately... it lays in three neatly broken pieces and we move on.

I guess I'll just go away

2011-05-05T04:08:00.002-04:00

I guess it will be easier on the majority if I just go away. I was one of the couples in that scene... now I can't seem to find my place in it anymore since she coupled with someone else in that same scene.

Kick my ass

2011-04-25T02:02:00.002-04:00

All day today I tried to get someone to kick my ass because I am growing weary of doing it all myself. I still do not understand why she felt I did not love her. I know I was disappointed, discouraged and all kinds of dis-words with her for some crazy character quirks that were impossible to understand. Perhaps she was acting out some stuff in her head, but these things were just common "rules" we all must abide by. Now I have been blamed for things that were not about me at all... addiction, infidelity and outright fraud to everyone. I can't and won't help her work this out. I guess I am much better off, but my heart is still hers in a lot of ways.

Perhaps her boyfriend can help not make matters worse.

Stop thinking

2011-04-20T04:36:00.000-04:00

I Just wish I could stop thinking about it. It is all the time.

Landslide

2011-04-19T18:53:00.002-04:00

So... I physically and metaphorically hold her hair while she pukes for most of ten years and she just spits me out for infatuation when she feels better. Damn, damn and damn it. She took her love and took it down alright! Mirror in the sky, why do you hate my reflection?

So robbed, so hurt, so angry... this seems impossible.

This landslide sure made matters worse.

Go to the places

2011-04-17T21:39:00.002-04:00

I don't want to go to the places where we were known because she still dwells there. Who wants to see their wife being all macked upon by men you considered at least respectful?

God damn it, so hard to not make matters worse.

Insight

2011-04-16T08:44:00.002-04:00

In total I guess it matters very little about the details of who cheated on who, or who became the most put upon. The fact is that loss is loss on all sides. Nine years is a great investment in a spouse and a lot to toss out with the bath water. As in any game each move is a part of it, but random luck plays a role that no one can predict.

I miss having my wife. I miss the friendship. I miss sleeping next to a warm woman that means the world to me. As with any disease the symptoms are the hardest part to cope with, but not the cause.

I loved her very much, and she could not feel it. The reasons are symptomatic of a lifetime of pain and mistrust on every side. I hurt, but I will survive. She hurts, but she will survive. I hate that pain so much.

I can't see her anymore because the hurt is a blinder. I can't hear her anymore because the sound was so loud that ringing is all there is. I can't feel her anymore because I have blisters and callouses from the toil. I can't smell her now because the tears have my nose stopped hard up. I can't taste her skin because the bitter is the only thing on my tongue. She is gone, we are gone, us is gone... I am here trying to not make matters worse to little avail.

For the record.

2011-04-14T04:10:00.002-04:00

Just so you know... I never sanctioned what went on with her and her "playing with the boys" plan to satisfy her selfish itch. Now I must prove my disapproval. She mortally wounded the beast and I put it out of it's misery. Goodbye my wife and friend of nine plus years.

Sorry, I am not strong, weak or whatever enough to be your friend anymore.

Blame it all on me since I pay all the bills and try and not make matters worse.

Reconcile, yer doin' it wrong

2011-04-13T22:02:00.002-04:00

She keeps texting me saying, "Do you want to talk?". Why would I want to say the same things that she can't hear and have her say the same things I can't hear? Sometimes I say, "okay lets talk", and then she stands me up.

What the heck?! Stop that, just stop it! If it is a game please know that I can't play, because I do not feel playful. I feel threatened which is not at all play.

The only thing I can do is retreat in order to not make matters worse.

R-U-N-N-O-F-T

2011-04-11T21:19:00.002-04:00

Well, it appears the second wife has gone too. Of course all the material loss is mine to bear as is only right as it was laid out a long long time before I got to these here parts. I am an angry kind of numb, numb if you leave me alone about it, and angry as hell if I talk about it.

I ponder how many times a man can start over before the world labels him a loser. I believe in sharing the burden of this dissolution, but I ain't buyin' that this was mostly my fault. This life cost me absolutely nothing and I can't lose anything that was not simply handed to me right from the start.

I place this text from a kind friend's house the same one who offered me shelter in another rough patch in my life eleven years ago. I am thankful to have his stability in the absence of parents on this earth in my life.

I'll keep trying to not make matters worse and I suggest everyone try and do the same.

A Place to Put it

2010-09-22T19:55:00.002-04:00

You know how sometimes you just need to lay it down? You need some little place to stash a bit of grief. Weird summer, a place to put it seems like here is good enough.

My youngest elated then broke my heart, my middle gave life, my step freaked all the way out, my oldest stays in trouble. I fear I have reached some middle aged depression and in topography every direction is up hill when one is in a depression. I sleep well for an old man, and I still work hard enough to deserve it too.

I have been letting my hair grow this summer and I like having long hair because it suits my disposition. Now as fall starts so does my seasonal beard. I am pretending I look like the white man's version of Jesus Christ if he had turned out to be a sinner and grew old like me. The black sheep instead of being the sacrificial lamb.

You know I am still trying to not make matters worse, trying ain't doing though.

Jesse Ventura asking good questions

2010-03-22T13:48:00.002-04:00

2010-02-15T23:25:00.000-05:00

Still trying to not make matters worse

In Vain

2009-05-25T11:50:00.003-04:00

I find it funny when Christians complain that "In God We Trust" should remain on money and buildings surrounding our institutions. It is a blatant misuse of the Almighty's image and a direct violation of one of the big ten commandments. Money is especially disturbing since it is the biggest scam ever created. To use God's name in vain is not at all what we have been told it is. Do you think you are a nasty sinner when you stub your toe and exclaim "God damn it", is that vanity? Is selling a faulty product with God's name on it, or proclaiming you have a direct link to God and his wishes more like vanity?

Ponder this, if you will, it can't make matters any worse.

Built on punishment and crime

2009-04-18T21:23:00.002-04:00

It occurs to me that everything in every city built is based on the position of "crime" and "punishment". Recently here in my scrappy little city on the Tennessee River a small group of Asians, who had several restaurants and an apartment house, were busted for immigration violations. I was reading the article and its comments on the local news channel when it occurred to me that the only reason these folks were busted was because they had built a small empire. There are thousands of illegal immigrants here who have nothing. Why bust them? Simply because there is no money in it.

Look at the recent local history in your city/town you will find similar trends where the "criminal" sects of your village built something that your "law enforcement" claimed as their own. It does not matter to me that this is a fact of business and society building, but it is good to know where things really dwell when we are casting stones. To throw morals around from a false doctrine seems to make matters worse as we view the graft taking place in a larger arena.

Childhood, vanish middle class

2009-04-05T18:04:00.005-04:00

I had a great childhood, my parents were gainfully employed up until my senior year then the "NEW WORLD" economy started to settle in as their jobs moved to Mexico back in 1982. When I say they were gainfully employed I mean they were working for a manufacturing firm that designed and built electronics right here in Tennessee, and they were paid a stable income with longevity bonuses with benefits such as health care and vacations.

Since they were long time employees they received long summer vacations some times as long as six weeks, in which I was a part of. We would set out to see America because fuel was cheap and time was long.

I ponder at times if that last glimmer of American prosperity was the last my eyes will see. I worry that my children will never see that kind of comfort. They have never seen a summer vacation of weeks on a road trip or an extended camping excursion with their parents. My kids parents divorced while they were fairly young and neither have they had a father that lived with them every day that they can remember. Their mom barley makes enough to clear each month and dad is the same and yet in separate homes they witness first hand struggles of parents not having resources to make the rent or anything easily. I don't think I considered money shortages as a young child. I remember doing things to make some cash that I could completely control at about 12 years old on, but there was never a problem with my folks chucking out the dough to send me on a field trip with school, paying my lunch card well in advance, buying me a class ring, or renting me a tux for the prom. My kids have to do without vacations, extra trips with school and even shortages in lunch monies.

I would like a little truth before I die. Was the implosion of our country caused by too many middle class people or was it the controlling few, hungry for too much too fast? I know it is far more complex than I am able to comprehend, but there must be some truth reveled to not make matters worse.

Fool of April

2009-04-01T18:42:00.004-04:00

I have found myself very uninterested in writing down my feelings. Moreover I have not cared about this "American Dream" in the way that I did my first forty years here. Therefore I feel my sharing may not meet the requirements I keep in my mission line to not make matters worse. I am about to spew my indifference and fail to fall within the boundaries of my blog.

You may remember how nearly two years ago I wrote of losing my home to the A.R.M. loan debacle. This scandal was happening to me when these things were unheard of, and folks just thought, oh well here is another loser whining about his stupid decisions. Now that it has been headline news a while and the government is giving people help who are about to lose a house or a business "too big to fail", I find my feelings on the matter apathetic, and the only emotion alive is bitterness.

As I know from my common mans dabbling into the psychological realm, disappointment comes from unmet expectations, so I expect nothing now. I have a dark craving to see this mess go into total collapse, every system down, burning houses for fire wood and way gone past the point of no return. Feelings on this are very difficult to shake as I have never seen a god damn bail out and all my punishments for being short on funds have only further made other people rich. It has all been a lie, a grift, a sham, a system designed to deceive built on real estate that is not real. I don't care to see this economic system heal if it is going to be the same type of amortized impossible-to-catch-debt. Rather my vision watches it burn into ashes. Rebirth from ash is the only hope, otherwise it is the same uncomfortable perceiving freedom, as money mongers rape your REAL efforts, with deceptive bank "products" and carefully languaged policies.

You are wondering what has happened to Jed the lovable fool? He is no longer lovable, he is a fool simmering into the stew of this melting pot and hoping matters boil dry. Don't let any of this worry you, because Jed only sees the obvious and never the future.

Code of Cake

2009-01-26T10:43:00.003-05:00

I hate that I have not made time to Blog, read or write. It seems I have defeated my goal of not making matters worse. I always contend, life if you live it long enough, will make a hypocrite of you while you try and stand steady in the flow.

I am glad there was a peaceful transfer of power the other day, perhaps things will get better. Hope is a good thing no matter the odds.

My daughter and I pass these lyrics back and forth in text messages to remind us of the things we are not in control of. Join us in our secret code.

We are building a religion
We are building it bigger
We are widening the corridors
And adding more lanes

We are building a religion
A limited edition
We are now accepting callers
For these pendant key chains

To resist it is useless
It is useless to resist it
His cigarette is burning
But he never seems to ash

He is grooming his poodle
He is living comfort eagle
You can meet at his location
But you'd better come with cash

Now his hat is on backwards
He can show you his tattoos
He is in the music business
He is calling you "DUDE!"

Now today is tomorrow
And tomorrow today
And yesterday is weaving in and out

And the fluffy white lines
That the airplane leaves behind
Are drifting right in front
Of the waning of the moon

He is handling the money
He's serving the food
He knows about your party
He is calling you "DUDE!"

Now do you believe
In the one big sign
The double-wide shine
On the boot heels of your prime

Doesn't matter if you're skinny
Doesn't matter if you're fat
You can dress up like a sultan
In your onion head hat

We are building a religion
We are making a brand
We're the only ones to turn to
When your castles turn to sand

Take a bite of this apple
Mr. corporate events
Take a walk through the jungle
Of cardboard shanties and tents

Some people drink Pepsi
Some people drink Coke
The wacky morning DJ
Says democracy's a joke

He says now do you believe
In the one big song
He's now accepting callers
Who would like to sing along

He says, do you believe
In the one true edge
By fastening your safety belts
And stepping towards the ledge

He is handling the money
He is serving the food
He is now accepting callers
He is calling me "DUDE!"

Do you believe
In the one big sign
The double-wide shine
On the boot heels of your prime

There's no need to ask directions
If you ever lose your mind
We're behind you
We're behind you
And let us please remind you
We can send a car to find you
If you ever lose your way

We are building a religion

We are building it bigger

We are building

A religion

A limited

Edition

We are now accepting callers...
For these beautiful...
Pendant key chains

Atlas in Rags

2008-12-17T19:11:00.000-05:00

You may remember this time of year gets me a little dark as the sun emulates me in its short quick path across the winter solstice sky. I know it is arrogant to feel like the sun is following my lead, but it does seem like I am the center of my universe inside this emotion. Please forgive or simply dismiss me as I ramble in a self-pitiful way. At the very least you can never say I was not honest in sharing myself with you as a writer and keeper of everything. Albeit too much too often I will not repent today.

When I study myself in as careful a way that anyone really can, I find the common denominator in all my bad dealing is me. It is difficult to have objectivity while being the center of the universe and my gravity affecting the path of my closest star. Nonetheless I blame nothing else exactly as I do myself.

I honestly feel better about my bankruptcy than ever before seeing that so many other people and entities have felt the gravity starved stomach rolling fall. Better, smarter and wiser people than I have come to join the company of misery loving lately, but be it wrong or right I am glad to have pulled them into my vacuum. Justice clearly has been made when I see how my darkness has spread to this globe and I made the world to fall from my back.

That is right, I did this, and I am proud and bitter concurrently to watch my things get dingy with my disregard to replace them. My bedclothes are threadbare, my towels full of holes and my clothing is worn and dated from my decision to pull things off course. The longer my rest the more weary my items, yet I have lost the urge to come back from my vacation.

Freedom is what they say it is when I scrounge for coins to buy life and watch others shop for useless things to brighten this otherwise dark time. Good luck, for I am all powerful obviously to have veered you into my foreclosure. Believe me when I say that I have held you as tight as I can, but you fell when I lost my footing on this slippery spinning universe.

Forgiveness is never expected or coveted because I know you have no choice the way that I do. You will be patting yourself on the back at how you pulled your own bootstraps up in recovery, and I will know who was the tug, because I needed them to suspend my rags.

It can't make matters worse to do a little creative writing.

Pomegranate NS08 phone

2008-11-26T12:23:00.000-05:00

The Pomegranate NSO8 leaps way beyond any other device in history. The flash site is a bit lengthy to load but it is worth it. The masterminds behind this device have taken phone technology past the twenty second century to a place where no phone has ever gone before.

This phone's creator is not making matters worse with this dream device.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. All I want for Christmas this year is a little less grief, how about you?

Law, what an absurd joke sometimes

2008-11-15T16:23:00.002-05:00

Zero tolerance is a way for people who get paid to hear a case, to get out of hearing a case and yet, still get paid. Let us all remember to always throw out the baby with the bathwater. Has zero tolerance kept anything from happening? The closest High School to me had a gun killing not too long ago, I guess it would have been worse if zero tolerance were not enacted...right?

Perhaps the lazy Judges, Lawyers and lawmakers will enact zero tolerance for civil cases soon and we can all wonder around making accusations and collecting checks for an easy living.

Please people, don't be calling my people and asking them to change my words or write letters apologizing in my name. If anyone can pick up a computer and write a letter in my pseudonym and get me removed from a RSS feed, then anything is possible on the wild-wild internets. Of which I am sure a special team of lawmakers are working on right now to suit their own agenda and financial backing.

If you are taking the word of any nut on the internet as anything other than their skewed opinion, then the problem is not with the writer. The problem may be in your own ability to not make matters worse in your individual thinking aptitude.

Shame on you, my Red State Tennesseans

2008-11-11T20:44:00.004-05:00

I am so ashamed sometimes for people of my own color and people in my own City.

Do you really think President-elect Obama is going to take all your guns with all the other daunting task at his hand? Sure, let the people starve while we haggle over rights about automatic rifles. You should really worry about getting habeas corpus back if you want rights free from undue accusation.

Do you really think your taxes are going to skyrocket? Where is your faith in your country's ability to equalize the tax burden? Give the new man a chance, hell even I did that in 2000 when "W" started.

You are calling this man a "Nigger" and you yourself have accomplished nothing to the degree that this man has. In reality you have a president-elect who may be the most educated, articulate and intelligent president your country will elect in your lifetime. I know he ain't no cowboy oil man or famous actor, but he is an expert on constitutional law. Don't you agree with the constitution? Do you really hate America, or is just "niggers" you hate?

I am really hopeful our newly elected president can start to undo the mess that has been created, because it can't make matters any worse to try something completely different.

Did you know?

2008-11-03T16:09:00.002-05:00

Did you know that if someone does not pay you for your work in Tennessee you can't really do anything about it? Even if you are a W-2 full time employee you have no recourse except hiring a lawyer which you can not charge the lawyer services back to said employer. Even if your employer has supposedly taken out taxes and social and never pays the federal government, you are still responsible.

Sounds like lawyers have set the game up pretty good for their own kind. I say bravo to them, clever word tricks have us all scrounging to pay our bills and health care.

Did you know you can not call a thief a thief? Just because they mismanaged does not make them a thief. You can't call a liar a liar either even if they had a contract with you in both paper and verbal agreement. It makes me wonder what really keeps order in these situations. Fraud it seems is difficult to prove and I am thinking of taking up a few more credit card offers, with the good intent of paying them back...of course. This may be the way things really work in these parts, swimming pools, movie stars.

I think when I had my bankruptcy and A.R.M. loan failure I would have taken the criticism of being a thief and a liar, because I felt low and like those things. Now I know that ain't at all how it works. Yet another reason to be feeling free today. What was that part of the Lord's prayer? Something about forgiveness of trespasses?

So remember folks if you lie and steal in a formal business fashion it will not make matters worse in the eyes of the law.

Appalachia and the Bush

2008-10-20T14:23:00.000-04:00

So our very lame duck Bush has redrawn the boundries of Appalachia to shake some of the poorest folks in our country out of a few more needed dollars. Is this a plot to add a few more Ohio and Kentucky counties to tip the States to his side for the McCain drive for the White House?

It seems a little late in his game to play like this. I guess we will see soon enough if it makes matters worse.

No Knoxville, bad humans!

2008-10-08T20:55:00.003-04:00

Inside of a six month period my little scrappy city by the Tennessee river has had a church shooting/killing, a school shooting/killing, the largest consumer rip-off of fuel ever and now a mall shooting/killing. At least it makes the Wall Street and war news seem further away. I have decided bars are the safest place in town to hang out.

So if you need me I will be at the pub to not make matters worse.

Historic Swindle

2008-09-20T21:31:00.002-04:00

I have been watching this craziness in the market last week. I kept saying let them fall because they had every chance to make good choices. Many of them took grants from us to start in the first place, but they screwed up thousands and thousands of lives. Now if we fund their bad behavior it will hurt millions of lives with insurmountable debt. It would be nice if we are going to be a socialistic nation to say it that way. If we the people are funding all the wealth directly that is what it is...right?

Free market? Free to whom?

Read this, it can't make matters worse.

Perhaps it is the full moon

2008-09-15T17:50:00.004-04:00

This is a dark Monday, but the night should be bright with that disc of a silver green glow we call the moon.

Fuel here has jumped up almost $2 per gallon this weekend making us all very nervous because we are paying more in this spot than anywhere else in America and we don't know why exactly. They say there is no buffer from the volatility of current markets. With that said, the big marketplace had a weird dangerous day where we saw businesses fail that had survived the Great Depression. I get the feeling there will still be no buffer.

What can I do to not make matters worse today? Feel another loss?

The loss of someone who changed the music world by using electronic technology to produce the underlying sound that was Pink Floyd. Rest in peace Richard Wright.

I started the idea phase of my commemorative Jack-o-Lantern. Should I use the young Christ like face of a man who built that unique sound or the weathered face of a man who lived to feed us sounds like we never heard before he was here?

F- - - Mac and Mae

2008-09-07T14:38:00.005-04:00

It really gets my goat that we the people have to bail out the corrupt and unethical mortgage giants that lack with all their over educated ivy league minds the foresight to see their facade would crumble. When my ARM loan went supernova there was no tax money to save my only living quarters, my down payment, my fucking HOME.

I know what you are saying, "Jed you should have read and understood your loan agreement better before signing." If you did say that you are giving me a heap of credit to think I could ever out think a team of lawyers and bankers who worked out their little plot to steal a living. Oh sure you business minded GOP suckers say, "well it was perfectly legal." Everything is legal if you have the lobbyist to make it that way. Just because something follows the law does not make it necessarily right.

Now we the people are involved in a huge socialistic (yea that's right I used the "S" word) scheme to save the mortgage giants who have already taken the money and ran. What happened to the pure capitalistic sink or swim in the free market G(f-ing)OP philosophy? Go ahead throw stones at the tax and spend people across the isle while being the enormous wasters that you are, you war mongering liars.

I say let F Mac and F Mae F-ing sink in the unethical bed they made with their other buddies from Enron and the like. Give them the same choices they gave me, pay up or lose.

I hope all you Bushites and McSame followers who have not been taken by these contradictory terms of a free market never have to suffer it, because I would not make matters worse by wishing on you. Stay in that daydream and sell out your countrymen to overseas workers, your facade will crumble soon enough without my illwishing.

We are all being lied to sheeple...about damn near everything.

In honor of labor day, someone has to do it!

2008-09-01T16:28:00.003-04:00

More adventures of Jed to not make matters worse by repairing bridge lights. I thought I would take you along dear and kind readers.

A Day in the Pond and High Above

2008-08-21T23:23:00.000-04:00

I know you folks sit around and wonder who keep the flag pole ropes working and pond pumps pumping. Now that I have brought it to the front of your mind you are saying it must be people like Jed.

Readers please know how much I like keeping simple things working in the outdoor places where people go for recreation. It was a warm 94 degrees, but that was easy to take with a break in the shade of a pine or maple tree by the pond where we were installing new pump impellers and housings. I am feeling blessed and that ain't making matters worse.

My wife has landed a cool new job with Cherries Internet Cafe as technical director and that puts her downtown where all the who's who of Knoxville hang out. That puts us back in the lower lower middle class income bracket. Which you know is much better than the upper middle lower income class bracket.

Overall a good batch of news, which make matters better.

Under the stamp

2008-08-17T13:23:00.001-04:00

Am I the only one who has ever noticed that the bad news inside of mailed bills lies under the stamp? It reminds me of old war stories/rumors where censored letters sent from P.O.W. camps would have a truthful message of how they were really being treated under the stamp.

Heuristic Prophet of the Obvious just checking in to not make matters worse.

Y'all please remember my internets buddy, Buddy Don as he is having little to no relief from his migraines. I suspect it is because he has too many brains to fit inside just one skull.

A song from long ago

2008-08-12T20:23:00.007-04:00

I have been spending time riding rather than blogging. My 44th birthday passed the other day when the Olympics started. Forty four on eight eight ought eight, has to have some good number mo-jo.

As I was devising a way to make my summer ride easier It reminded me of an old Pink Floyd song called "Bike" which is almost as old as I am.

The song opens with these words:

I've got a bike. You can ride it if you like. It's got a basket, a bell that rings and Things to make it look good. I'd give it to you if I could, but I borrowed it.

I think remembering Syd Barrett's contribution to music and my life's soundtrack can't make matters worse.

The Sixth Man on the Moon

2008-07-26T10:23:00.001-04:00

The other day Dr. Edgar Mitchell Astronaut stated that our government has known for many years about extra terrestrial visitors. He also states they have far superior technologies than we possess. We assume they are friendly because if they had wanted to eradicate us it would have been so.

I think this is very exciting if it has any validity. Think of all the things that would change for human kind...

Energy technologies, religion, world peace, space travel are the few at the tip of my mind that could change from meeting beings from out there.

I bet it won't make matters worse if it is true.

Great weekend in Jedlam

2008-07-03T11:23:00.000-04:00

Come listen to a story about a man named Jed, the luckiest of unlucky men. This past weekend I was hanging out with a group of lifelong friends when one of them said she had this Harley she was not riding and wished I would just take it and do some maintenance on it and use it. She has been saying this for about three years now and I told her if she did not quit asking I was going to do it. So here I am with a nice little Harley-Davidson Sportster low rider to use at my will.

Then if the weekend was not going exceedingly well enough I get to see Tom Waits live as a pay-back for doing a friend a favor. He must have known I would have done the favor without compensation, but he did this for me anyway. Thats my happy ear in the photo.

What a good couple of days to be alive and not make matters worse.

No more Mondays for Jed

2008-06-16T00:23:00.000-04:00

I am so glad to be back on the compact work week. When I first came to the Facilities Department we had the four ten hour day work week and I really loved it. Then the powers that be became frustrated that many crew members wanted to return to eight hour days and managing a mixed group of workers on different schedules was confusing with holidays and off time. Now that fuel prices are out of the roof the majority of us agreed to go back to save 4.3 driving days a month. Thats almost 20% less commuting. I was always a proponent of this compact work week because it seemed I could get more done because we get tools and equipment all scattered out to do a project then at the end of the day had to allow time to repack and transport back to the shop with only another hour or so to finish, so we had to return the next day with all of the same equipment to finish which ate the heart of the next day too.

Jed is always putting a bug in the right ear or two to get things changed without wanting credit, just the benefit. My next mission is to get Red Cross training and professional courses prepaid not reimbursed because many of us have no means to "imburse" in the first place. As the Heuristic Prophet of the Obvious that I am, I made an observation the other day I am adding to my life soundtrack. Observation: I like working for public service because my underpaid efforts are not going to make some selfish person rich, but to enrich the area where my children will live.

It can't make matters worse to throw ideas around to make others look good when their is political gain for them and benefit for me and mine.

Mulberry Jed

2008-06-02T21:23:00.001-04:00

You may well know of Huckleberry Fin, but this is a story about Jed and a quest for something seasonal to eat and not making matters worse.

Today as I was in Adair park to fix a pump timer. I pulled the city truck in next to the pond where some days ago we installed a fountain to decorate the water, and as I started to the back of the truck I noticed the small boom and tool boxes had about three quarts of mulberries strewn all about them. I started looking at my path and spied the mother of all these berries, a huge red mulberry tree as big as red mulberry trees ever get, full, and I do mean full of the sweetest most ripe berries.

This spring has been plentiful with conditions for growing things like this around here and it has reminded me so much of springtimes I remember from my youth. The mulberry trees normally give up all of their fruit to the birds, but this year the bounty was so plentyful that the birds are full and left plenty for Jed and his kin. Mrs. Jed and I went back after I got off work and spread a small tarp and bumped the branches with a rake and gathered over two gallons in about five minutes, all perfectly ripe. The ground around the tree was stained a purple that matched my hands after cleaning a few quarts of fruit.

The area where this tree lives, which is now a park, was the sight of the city tree and flower nursery many years ago with a natural spring which feeds the aforementioned pond and many trees. All the trees at Adair Park seem to be there by intention and I am glad someone planted this one. The trees are very mature now many years after the city abandoned the idea of keeping its own plant nursery, but with transportation cost higher than the love of trees who knows what will happen.

After much work washing and cutting the bitter stems off the berries I had lots left to share with my newest neighbor even after Mrs. Jed made a fine cobbler.

I hope you enjoy the photos of Mulberry Jed's adventures.

$3,000,000,000,000

2008-05-28T21:23:00.002-04:00

What does three trillion dollars really mean? It can't make matters worse to consider the cost of things even if the numbers are abstract in your mind.

Watching the 555

2008-05-19T19:23:00.000-04:00

I have been watching the progress of a group of bikers called the 555 who set out from Knoxville Tennessee on old school bikes with the goal of hitting Portland Oregon. They must have bikes made before 1975 worth after restoration less than $500 and less than 500 cubic centimeters displacement. They started on May 16th and it is fun to watch their adventures in the Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance.

It can't make matters worse to watch others have adventures I can only dream of.

The Seed of Oppression By Clifford Clark

2008-05-05T21:23:00.002-04:00

Remember the thoughts I had about that red light camera shooting? I have developed a friendship (internet pen pal actually) with the man accused of doing it. He has a web page that I have been reading as his story has progressed. It seems to me from my limited viewpoint/window on the world that the local law has a very shaky case of circumstantial evidence and are doing everything possible to evoke a poor reaction from him under extreme stress. Now in an effort to not make matters worse I want to break this latest observation from a free thinking man.

The Seed of Oppression

Some 60 years ago, an iron curtain descended across Europe, and soon there after the same curtain cloaked Asia. An Individual’s liberties and ownership of virtually everything became the exclusive dictate of the state.

Some 60 years later, our own country slides into totalitarianism. Repetitious taxation insures that the state owns every piece of land, every home, every auto, and virtually everything superficially considered to be your own. The equity accumulated from your labor belongs either to the state or agencies of the state. If you doubt this bold statement, forgo a tax payment to reassure yourself of the consequence.

Access to your home is granted to the state without reservation. My own door was kicked in and my home searched without permission or warrant. My legal property was seized, all within the dictates of the state.

The words that come from your mouth and words from your pen are evaluated for acceptance and approval. Thoughts incongruent with state’s dictates render a consequence to the speaker or to the writer. Employers are used to police everyone for compliance. Employers may prosecute largely without regard to civil rights. Employers may engage in double jeopardy without restriction. However, you are indeed free to be unemployed.

An assembly of laws so complex, ambiguous, yet all inclusive insures that nearly everyone can be prosecuted on whim. Yet, rarely is any law ever enacted with permission of the majority. The technology exists to provide access to government for everyone. Various brokerages transact with the stock market and process millions of orders routinely. Yet, you’ll not find line item laws presented to the public via the internet so that all can cast their approval or disapproval.

There are opiates to relieve a collective angst. You are free to masturbate. Persons of any age can view virtually any sex act via the internet. We are pacified by the declaration of ‘free speech’. I have yet to discern any ‘speech’ within the context of this masturbator theater. Ironically, you’ll be placed in jail if you pay for sex. Another opiate is indebtedness. The compulsion that one more material possession might bring happiness propels us into debt and subsequent indenture. Our attics and closets overflow with failures like an alley littered with needles from heroine addicts.

Various opiates and punishments were employed in the conversion of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. Both seduction and oppression are mechanisms of conquest. Safe guard your liberties by refusing to be seduced or oppressed. While we may correctly identify government and private industry for stripping us of our freedom, the genesis of oppression lies within ourselves. The seed of oppression is fear. When we succumb to fear, we indenture ourselves and our fellow countrymen.

A single person can indeed stop the erosion of freedom. That one person is YOU. Control your fear, or your fear will control you. Spread the words of love, peace and freedom with your every breath.

Clifford Clark

IRS was fair to Jed

2008-04-29T20:23:00.002-04:00

I want to share some good news. I know what you are saying, "Jed, that ain't what you normally do." Well I wanted to tell you a story about a man named Jed who was bold enough to ask the IRS to have mercy, and they did. I know it is a freaking miracle, it is nothing short of a miracle.

I had received a letter a few weeks ago from the IRS explaining when I had to do the short sale on my house the wonderful Country Wide Bank had filed a 1099 of some type that credited me with a capitol gain of some seven thousand dollars. Since I had been excused of that much on my upside down loan they were expecting about one thousand dollars in taxes from Jed. As you can imagine I was very upset, well hell I'll just say it I was pissed dead off. I lost my entire down payment of twenty grand and had to move quickly with no tax relief since I am now a renter. So I called and spoke with the agent and explained all this. Without much compassion he said to write it all down in a letter and send it in.

I thought well...I will try and compose a friendly and humble letter even though I felt anything but friendly and humble. I was feeling like another loser all over again. I was in the mood to quit trying at all and start systematically killing my liver with cheap vodka.

Your standard still successful fellow American will look at this whole ARM loan mess as stupid people signing documents they don't read and understand. I hope stuffed assholes like that get out thunk by a group of Lawyers and Bankers when they need it most, lets say when they need that surgery. What didn't you read and understand that thing you signed call your Health Insurance package? I don't make matters worse when I say we are all subjected to corruption of this kind and it devalues everyone.

Anyway, rant about judgmental idiots aside, I must have proved in my simple letter and worth sheet that it was nothing but a total loss on my side. It was a raw deal, and I guess the facts were sufficient to excuse Jed.

I can't tell you how much a thousand dollars is to me, but let me say it means a lot. So, I will say something I thought I would never say...Thank you Internal Revenue Service.

How strange it is to be anything at all

2008-04-20T09:23:00.000-04:00

Everyone from time to time can find they are in a quandary of emotion swirled and swished by the tide of life. To not make matters worse I found a song that gives relativity to the ebb and flow. It is a little ditty by Neutral Milk Hotel eluding to Anne Frank the little Jewish girl who wrote a diary of her brush with fear and hate. The last line of the song "In The Aeroplane Over The Sea" speaks volumes about the truth of life and what it is.

Please join me in an emotional vacation and play this video and read the lyrics posted without permission below it. Because thoughts like this belong to everyone.

What a beautiful face
I have found in this place
That is circling all round the sun
What a beautiful dream
That could flash on the screen
In a blink of an eye and be gone from me
Soft and sweet
Let me hold it close and keep it here with me

And one day we will die
And our ashes will fly from the aeroplane over the sea
But for now we are young
Let us lay in the sun
And count every beautiful thing we can see
Love to be
In the arms of all I'm keeping here with me

What a curious life we have found here tonight
There is music that sounds from the street
There are lights in the clouds
Anne's ghost all around
Hear her voice as it's rolling and ringing through me
Soft and sweet
How the notes all bend and reach above the trees

Now how I remember you
How I would push my fingers through
Your mouth to make those muscles move
That made your voice so smooth and sweet
And now we keep where we don't know
All secrets sleep in winter clothes
With one you loved so long ago
Now he don't even know his name

What a beautiful face
I have found in this place
That is circling all round the sun
And when we meet on a cloud
I'll be laughing out loud
I'll be laughing with everyone I see
Can't believe how strange it is to be anything at all

LAG tv

2008-04-14T19:23:00.000-04:00

I have been busy around here with little time consuming projects like designing a logo for a company my wife has become very involved with over the past few months called LAGtv. It is a live broadcast internet television show that caters to the X-Box 360 gaming community. You all need to stop in and see her on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 9:00 p.m. est as she is the producer for the main LAGtv show. You will need to add Silverlight to your browser which is a Microsoft specific flash/stream plug in you can download directly from Lagtv that does not interfere with any actions visible on a computer os.

I have been playing some on X-Box live and it is quite fun even for an old man like myself. I have found I like the first person shooter games the best and "Call of Duty 4" is hours and hours of fun. I like playing other living humans from all over the world...and killing the shit out of them.

It can't make matters worse giving your wifes company a plug on your blog.

Hoopty Easter

2008-03-22T22:23:00.000-04:00

I hope you folks have a Happy Easter.

We will be having a Hoopty Easter over this way. Please see the photos of my across the way neighbor's dream car, it is worth every bit of $50 scrap weight and has $3000 worth of rims up in under it...I mean damn. He says he is putting nitrous all up in it someday. I am thinking a regular fuel tank, transmission and engine would be money better spent...but hey, it ain't my tax free money to spend. So I'll be shutting my festering gob about my dreams for his ride.

Jesus will be on my front porch before this thing is huffing nitrous in a 500 horsepower rage down this or any other block of the city. Hurry up Jesus, Dontell's car got a big block, sitting on twenty-sixes wit da NOS system!

I have not been attending to my blog very much as of late because my online time gets away from me reading up on survival tips and bad news.

Here in my little window of the world things are about the same, no money and getting worse with the economy all sour and food/fuel prices up by a noticeable percentage. Practicing and reading about combat skills for fear I might need them. Decidedly not going to do a second job, because selling all my at home time has always proved a sure way into a deep dark and miserable funk. All we need is food and shelter anyway, other things will wait. The neighborhood we live in is becoming more and more overrun with classic "shady characters" cursing and screaming back and forth from porch to pimped out rides with shiny rims as big as semi trucks with much smaller tires. The more responsible citizens are selling in a bear market and glad to cash out of a soon to be uglier place.

Otherwise I am glad to see spring springing all over and looking to better times if things get better and the sheer adventure if they get worse. It will be like a goddamn vacation if the apocalypse does come calling, I think to myself sometimes in self pity.

It can't make matters worse to rant a bit on your own blog if you do it with a colorful story and a photo or two.

Come on up to the house

2008-03-08T01:23:00.003-05:00

All your crying don't no good...come down off the cross we can use the wood.

Tom Waits hardly ever makes matters worse.

Jed getting high

2008-03-04T17:23:00.000-05:00

I love spring time and getting high above the diamonds. Below are a couple of shots that can't make matters worse.

Teach your Children

2008-02-24T22:23:00.002-05:00

Teaching your kids to handle a shotgun can't make matters worse. Times are weird and every advantage you can get may be useful. If you agree with firearms or not the fact is they do exist, so it is better to know something about them than not.

Jed - land war diplomat

2008-02-12T20:23:00.000-05:00

Come and listen to a story about a man named Jed, public servant. You may have your next newsworthy land battle here...who can say. Our department had an order to border off a piece of public land that was being used for parking illegally. We were to border off with a standard bollard and cable set up like other parks this tiny parcel of property that has an old swing set for neighborhood use. See the area pictured below (thanks Google Maps). The city keeps and maintains several micro-parks where their is no real usefulness for the land, but it wants to give the neighborhood a value added feature. Parks like this do not have a dedicated name they are simple right of ways that just exists in odd angles and between split streets. This one is a good sized one that folks have started using for parking since almost all of the houses were zoned commercial.

(click image for larger)

Despite efforts to control this with posted signs people keep parking there. All of the businesses that operate in the once housing subdivision have enough parking behind them (see map). People prefer to park in the middle for easy access. Anyway we started auguring yesterday to put in bollards and caught much attention with the businesses. About half were thankful and half were angry about the process.

One fella (some sort of psychologist) was really raw about it because we asked him to move his SUV from the lot. He kept asking, "why?" I said, "because we are going to enclose the property with a simple park fence." He said, "why?" I said, "because we have our orders." He said, "why?" I said, "it is what we do for the parks and recreation department." He said, "why?" I was sensing (at this point) he was the psychologists that I had asked a receptionist to ask her people that were parked there to move, she assured me she would ask the Dr. when he was out of session, I answered, "why not?" Knowing the bits of logic I got at community college that this would close the hopeless logic loop we were in.

I told him to call 311, or his area council person, but we were going to have to keep working. I alerted my boss and he said, "stay on task until further notice."

Today at lunch the boss called and said stop. This should be interesting.

It can't make matters worse to carry on until further notice.

RIP Altec my faithful friend

2008-02-07T21:23:00.000-05:00

Just before Christmas I was working on the fields when my old giraffe gave a little sway which was unusual for less than thirty feet, since she will do twice that. I pulled the reigns to see what was up with the old long beast and parts of the neck were frozen. I managed to get the upper bones to fold enough to climb down. Once I was on the ground I noticed a hemorrhage, a small drip-drip from the head. She was still perched with her neck half up and twisted and I knew she could not travel like that, so I pulled her from the ground with her lower reigns and brought her down with her last bit of energy. Then the drip broke into a hard pour right above where I had to fold her legs for travel. I gathered a five gallon bucket to catch the slippery blood and keep it from pouring on me while the legs were folded. The bucket was filling fast and I put her to sleep but the bleeding worsened. Once the bucket filled I grabbed another, now the poor beast was pouring from several places so I gathered all the rags I could find and tied a makeshift tourniquet to at least control where the flow would fall. I was calling for help from the Doctor while trying to mop this huge mess and watching her fade away. It was scary to think of my sweet Altec so sick, but the Doc had hope since he had seen animals in worse shape recover.

Weeks have passed since she was hospitalized and she has been in intensive care at times. At other points she was out to pasture with the other beast waiting to heal. This past week she has been put in the field where the really old burdened creatures live. The furthest pasture where the once most valuable ones are, the ones who have served in capacities to save humans and cool fires with their mighty bellies and water spouting noses.

The Doctor gave the news today that she is gone too weak to serve anyone. She will be missed.

I have had her in tight places no one else would attempt and she has carried people and supplies to high roof tops. She has been in trees and wide open skies. On busy streets and back allies and city parties she was a regular. I have been able to use her to go where only crows and hawks visit daily. She will be missed this spring when the smell of fresh cut grass and baseball diamond dust rises sixty feet above the fenced fields.

It does not make matters worse to imagine a truck is an exotic working beast when you grieve for her passing.

American Acts of Jed

2008-01-31T20:23:00.000-05:00

Crime is on the rise and times are getting weird with the Gov'ment wanting to flow our money back to us in order to prime the economy pump. I think the cash would be better spent somewhere in the education or health care system in real dollars per person not some whacked out program that has a crew of over paid council members and directors. Example, if $1000 dollars were given to each public educated primary (k-12) aged student with the money managed directly by their teachers they might be inspired to take the kids to some event, arrange an inspiring trip, hire/acquire additional resources or visit a distant exhibit to prime their young minds. All the while stimulating the economy providing said goods and services. Many young people do not get to go anywhere besides their neighborhood and if they could be shown first hand, the world, a different place from their despair for a week they might find inspiration to learn and dream. Something other than handing money out to citizens who's only choice in the market place are imported shiny doo-dads. I feel that if I had a extra few hundred dollars that it would help for a very short time to boost my expenses of living indoors and all would return to struggle the next month.

Hunter S. Thompson said in one of his novels "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro", I like that quote way too much. Pondering on the hush money the federales are offering, I have found the most American way to spend it. Buy an American made firearm from a local dealer. Nothing could be more American in the exercising of rights and buying power. If things go well in the future and I don't need the thing, I'll trade it in for some Chinese made gee-gaws. While things are unsettled I might find myself in a battle for resources where someone thinks they can take from me what they want because I seem defenseless. I will surprise them and have a capable weapon I am comfortable using, plenty of ammunition, practice, and be a ready American. Read up on the safest way to store my defense tool, learn how it works, how to take it apart, how to put it together, how to clean it and keep it working well, I will make it a hobby.

They have been telling me terrorist are everywhere for too many years now for me not to listen and be ready to not make matters worse.

Jed's inoculation proposal

2008-01-21T18:23:00.000-05:00

I am thinking we need to print up a few billion dollars to develop a vaccine for this as soon as possible. The circle circle dot dot method has been used until recent times, but we must develop a broader spectrum of drugs to battle this childhood pandemic.

I know I don't normally post about this type of medical issue, but I feel the need to not make matters worse.

God is back

2008-01-10T18:23:00.000-05:00

God Almighty! is back and taking questions.

New Year Prophet Obvious Jed

2008-01-01T21:23:00.000-05:00

Happy new year folks, my beloved guests. I am increasingly amazed at the opportunity the internet has provided common people like myself to hold captive your interest.

This year I find myself wanting to read more on national conspiracies or at least peoples suspicions of all things American (or anti-American, if that is your viewpoint). We are a nation of laws, perhaps too many laws for me to understand and I think that is wrong. I say this because I know that ignorance of the law is never an excuse when you inadvertently break one. As a prophet of the obvious and full time wage slave I would have to devote more hours than are available on the clock to the study of the laws of the land to be a proper law abiding citizen. That is wrong, too many things are legislated that don't really need to be. I hope this year you won't think I subscribe to all the conspiracy theories I exhibit here, but I think it is fun to see.

Ladies and Gentlemen our national anthem to start the year out right.

Remember things are rarely what they seem and Jed is going to be watching the man behind the curtain close this year. I don't expect any of the items I search to change things. There are a few things that come to mind that are historic conspiracy suspects, but nothing ever comes of them, so we go forward in time without real answers.

As you know my schtick is to strive to not make matters worse, so I will continue that as I hope to point to more disturbing ideas.

Jed and Nine Eleven

2007-12-28T18:23:00.000-05:00

I am one of those folks who thinks something fishy was going on the day the towers fell down. I know you are going to say that I am nuts, but I already admit to that so you ain't got a hard fight to prove that.

I am going to start handing out these bills. You can see them here with live links.

It don't make matters worse to know you ain't alone in your craziness.

Making a mark on the earth

2007-12-26T20:23:00.000-05:00

Some men make a mark of their time here on earth with clever words or beautiful art. Jed just scratches around lost most of the time.

Christmas left me feeling a bit like a failure as a husband, father, friend, son, grandson, brother, grandfather, employee, or any relationship I can ponder. I suspect it is the season, not Christmas, but winter that has me sour in the emotional stew.

Underground Jed

2007-12-16T18:23:00.000-05:00

I know I always show myself working on things in high up places, but sometimes I have to get down below the earth of this scrappy little city and help repair a bad connection. Basegasket snapped this one of me when we were working the Christmas parade and found some shaky voltage that was to supply the center broadcasting area with a few million candlepower of light. Here I am waiting on KUB to kill the main feed so I can tie a lug on to bypass an ailing three phase switch. I thought I would just stay put rather than crawl out to take a smoke break.

Here Basegasket and I are acting proud to have a new device to take care of Downtown. We don't know much about keeping a clock working, but that ain't going to stop us from fixing it if it needs fixing. Notice I am still wearing the dirt from the afore mentioned electrical vault. Also notice my tall cohort wearing his new Turtle Fur® cap.

Having smart and able coworkers sure don't make matters worse. It appears he will be moving to work for these guys soon and will be missed.

WWO

2007-12-09T11:23:00.000-05:00

Image of a 1979 gas coupon that was
proposed and never enacted.

We are worried about WWIII while WWO (world without oil) is creeping up on us. WWO is a finished ARG (alternate reality game) where a multitude of participants penned the various aspects and ramifications that could occur during the economic model known as Peak Oil. Since the game ended, one of the creators fashioned a blog to follow news stories paralleling the games suppositions and compiling the scenarios that unfolded during the game in an orderly form for posterity's sake. They are working on a short film to post to YouTube that will be released soon as well.

Jed being the Heuristic Prophet of the Obvious that he is has been watching this Peak Oil theory for a time now and this WWO Blog will be added to his links for all of us to use. He is suggesting you take a few browsing moments with them to consider what the fleas will do if the dog dies. Jed is fascinated with greed as it is inborn on the cellular level of all living things. Looking at how every living thing consumes its host to death. Crops rob the soil, cancer kills the animal and people consume everything they can until it is over. Jed knows Mother Nature will take it all back in her time.
Side Note: I enjoy speaking about my pseudonym in the third person as if it is another human all together.

This ain't here to worry you it is here to make you think, and thinking don't always make matters worse.

Invite Jim over for Christmas

2007-12-05T20:23:00.000-05:00

I love it when one of my blogger buddies brings a link that makes me smile a big old smile. Reading Domestic Psychology can't make matters worse.

It had to be here

2007-12-03T21:23:00.000-05:00

Something happened the other day that makes me glad I live in this scrappy little city in the heart of our Appalachian valley. Can you believe freemen wondering the streets taking out traffic cameras? Local news and National news found it interesting enough to give us the scoop.

Sure they tell us it is for our safety, but statistics indicate that timing of yellow lights are a superior safety improvement over the threat of a fine. Let us not forget other "crimes" such as not wearing seat belts when we don't require it for our children on school buses. This type lawmaking does not have a thing to do with public safety. I guess it is better to get a taser shock than a bullet too, but there are clear rules about using bullets as well as facing ones accuser.

This particular camera is the closest one to Jed's house and it is obvious to me it is a fee grabber for a ridiculously designed intersection. I normally drive dangerously slow around it just to be sure I don't get hit with a fine.

I don't condone disobedience of the law, but there is coming a time where the stress of too many taxes and laws will rue the vile action of the people. If we the people don't veer from this path of acceptance of corruption and twisted laws it will make matters worse.

Evil is dead

2007-11-30T17:23:00.000-05:00

Daredevil motorcyclist Evel Knievel sails over 13 Mack trucks in the
open-air Canadian national exhibition stadium in Toronto, Canada,
in this Aug. 20, 1974. Knievel, the hard-living motorcycle daredevil
whose exploits made him an international icon in the
1970s, died Friday, Nov. 30, 2007. He was 69.

Some things in the news really strike Jed. I watched this man do some crazy stunts in my youth and was very impressed. In fact I owned his collection of action figures and motorcycle vehicles.

I think taking time to honor a daredevil can't make matters worse.

The Star of Gay street

2007-11-21T16:23:00.000-05:00

Todd and I working on the details

The star is there hanging over Knoxville's Gay street. My boss did a nice slide show for all our efforts. I don't mean to make matters worse, but I worry about the harsh winds that flow with the Tennessee river current as winter weather patterns change rapidly.

Y'all have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Jed the amateur designer

2007-11-18T10:23:00.000-05:00

As y'all may know Jed likes to dabble in the graphics business. I could never quite forge a living out of it when I attempted it previously, so currently I work as a maintenance guy for the scrappy little city on the Tennessee river known as Knoxville. I love this damn valley with all its faults and quirky inhabitance. I fit right in having a fair share of faults and quirks my own self.

Anyway I like planning for making things, useful things, things that make my soul feel creative. I always say pixels and thoughts are free, so use them. Car parts and hardware cost an unattainable penny around here, but I am free to dream no matter how much my bank account holds.

The drawing below is a clamp design for hanging a Christmas star downtown by clamping an aerial cable to a fragile ancient building. I hope to bring you some more details on this as the project progresses. I try and play my part on the team and use my pixels and imagination to help expedite a task. Sometimes it makes matters worse, but never worse than failing to try at all.

The next two drawings are for a Facilities cohort who keeps bees and needs a label for the fruits of his work. I was pondering a shape that had visual interest yet used the best yield of printed sticker material while looking nice on several kinds of jars and jugs. I gave him an icon bee shape to use as filler on the sticker stock, so he can place them on the lids if he wishes. I call it "King Bee" 'cause of the "K" (which really stands for Kelley), and it don't make matters worse to fantasize there is such a thing as a King bee.

This next two are a "what if" Ford still made its Jeep type vehicle the lovable Bronco in 2008. Cars always make me think of a lyric, Little wheel turns by the fire and rod, big wheel turns by the grace of God. It is not complete, so it is, what it is, just a blurry dream to not make matters worse.

click on any image on this here page and see it larger

Song Class Sub

2007-11-11T22:23:00.000-05:00

I read the news today, oh boy.

When the U.S. Navy deploys a battle fleet on exercises, it takes the security of its aircraft carriers very seriously indeed.

At least a dozen warships provide a physical guard while the technical wizardry of the world's only military superpower offers an invisible shield to detect and deter any intruders.

That is the theory. Or, rather, was the theory

American military chiefs have been left dumbstruck by an undetected Chinese submarine popping up at the heart of a recent Pacific exercise and close to the vast U.S.S. Kitty Hawk - a 1,000ft supercarrier with 4,500 personnel on board.

By the time it surfaced the 160ft Song Class diesel-electric attack submarine is understood to have sailed within viable range for launching torpedoes or missiles at the carrier.

We had better make close friends with them to not make matters worse.

Snapper® on the lawn

2007-11-02T22:23:00.000-04:00

I have finished project Snapper® and have found out she is a 1968 model 308x. I want to fashion some ape hanger handle bars for it so I can cruise in style. Folks say " Jed, you gonna paint that thing?", I say "Hell no that would be pretentious and make matters worse."

JB'O'Lantern and Halloween

2007-10-30T20:23:00.000-04:00

Happy Halloween! I finished the James Brown tribute pumpkin (pictured above click 'em for bigger). It is so difficult to find the best viewing angle and camera settings to capture a carved pumpkin. I adjusted the contrast a bit to cure some of the blur and show the glow of the gourd.

I am not as pleased with this years effort as some years past for a number of reasons most of all the affordability of an extra large squash canvas due to the worst drought in a hundred years. A larger platform allows me a larger image which means more detail. Another disappointing fact was a great usable image without a microphone or a hand or both in front of his wailing face. I noticed in my research of the subject he never keeps his eyes open while giving his trademark squeals.

All Hallows Eve seems to mark a moment where the dead and living can coexist. So if the Godfather of Soul Mr. Brown can walk up and see, I hope he approves.

It can't make matters worse to conger a memory of a remarkable artist, especially when he has the best traditional chance to see our efforts.

Jed the Snapper fixer upper

2007-10-29T22:23:00.000-04:00

I ain't had much time for the blogosphere lately I have been working on a couple of old riding mowers. I have acquired two nonworking Snapper® rear engine lawn mowers in hopes of making one functional mower for my own personal use. It is another low-end Jed project using whatever I can scrounge up. I have found there are many fans of this type of mower and they have made very few changes to the design since the sixties.

I am going to carve up my James Brown pumpkin tomorrow night and I will have some photos soon...I hope. Meanwhile try and not make matters worse while looking down on Gay Street at the names on the ground near the drop box at the utility board.

TED and Tennessee Jed

2007-10-22T20:50:00.000-04:00

I hope you guys know about TED. Technology, Entertainment, Design is much more than a website it is a think tank convention. It is most likely a bunch of damn liberals from some perspectives. The same bunch of carbon footprint measuring global warming Chicken Littles our administration loves to hate. If the only voices you like to listen to are Limbaugh and Coulter then you need not go see these videos it will make matters worse.

Here (embedded) is one filmed a few years ago about how we might avert some possible tragedies for our kind. If you peruse the site you will notice an intuitive interface and a very interesting video player that chapter the speeches along the playback bar.

Tennessee Red Wine

2007-10-17T21:23:00.000-04:00

The other day I had two days off in a dang row! Two days they call it a weekend in the old world. The world before the invisible second depression hit America. I will pay for it come next month with a couple of late bills and their convenient late fees. Fees are suppose to be my punishment but it does work to heap their bank account up in the same way red light cameras are making traffic better. Oh yea, I am buying it like the obedient sheeple that I am.

Anyway, the other day we were looking to do something fun without traveling too far...paying for expensive fuel...paying for heavy entrance fees...paying for culture...paying...paying...paying to have a little relief from work. We ended up thinking of a little winery in a neighboring county to the south west where they have a free tasting room. The Tennessee Valley Winery was a nifty outing where we sampled almost everything they brew even mead. We took home a bottle of Tennessee Red wine. It was delicious with our meal at a south Knox legendary Egyptian restaurant named "King Tut" where Moe the owner basically picks out what he thinks you will like and he is usually right. It was a good day to be alive.

I don't think it made matters worse to visit a local vineyard, at least this month.

Guess who

2007-10-07T21:23:00.000-04:00

I have a rough draft for my pumpkin design this year. Try and identify this person to help me decide if am on the right track. I tend to loose my objectivity while I am manipulating the image. It makes matters worse the more I look at it and work with it.

Hint: remember it is always someone who died since last Halloween and impacts humanity with style.

Waiting for the KSO behind the pole

2007-10-05T22:23:00.000-04:00

Fifteen minutes in the life of Jed.

Notice the man lying on the bench behind the pole.

Now the man is sitting on the bench behind the pole.

There is that same man standing near the bench behind the pole.

That man is Jed waiting on the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra. It was a very nice show and the dramatic music floating across the square made all my motions feel as if I were in a movie with a composed soundtrack.

Sometimes you only need to wait patiently to not make matters worse.

Jed the rocketdog

2007-10-03T17:23:00.000-04:00

I was reading my friend and coworker's blog while I was sitting at home the other day with a sick step-daughter. He wrote a bitter-sweet observation of watching his daughter grow into a woman in which he mentioned her choice of footwear and the changes they have taken since she was his little helper.

Among other things, his post reminded me of something my wife said about my casual shoes being plain and looking like old man shoes. I was starting to feel self conscious about my shoes and a few of those other things.

At great risk of looking like I am trying to don clothing younger than my age, I went to the Rocketdog website. In a mouse click I changed from old man tennis shoes to trendy urban hipster/skater punk footwear in a effort to not make matters worse.

Warming Bush

2007-09-30T22:23:00.000-04:00

So when did it become official? You remember a few months ago when this global warming thing was a fabrication from liberal freak jobs? Now more and more reports speak of it as fact. Even the President of the United States in his unique bumbling speech making way, says it like it is true.

One would think it would make 144 point headline text in a least the L.A. Times. So here it is on the Jed, Prophet of the Obvious...

GLOBAL WARMING

IS REAL

I hope knowing don't make matters worse for anyone.

What is fair in death and taxes?

2007-09-27T22:23:00.000-04:00

Gaul coin showing man-headed horse on the reverse.
A grim- reaper like figure hovers above, replacing the usual rider.
Notice the solar wheel behind.

I received one of them emails that have a little story. The logic written there pumped some organic hydraulic fluid to a part of my brain that made me want to share my thoughts on it. Now that my bloggin oblongata is all full of life, here ya go.

This is the email text:

Since we are all concerned about taxes and about a National Sales Tax
we need to understand our current system and how it works.

Let's put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand.

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten
comes to $100.

If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with
the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. "Since
you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the
cost of your daily beer by $20."Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But
what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they
divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?'
They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted
that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man
would each end up being paid to drink his beer.

So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each
man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work
out the amounts each should pay.

And so:

The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued
to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to
compare their savings.

"I only got a dollar out of the $20,"declared the sixth man. He pointed
to the tenth man," but he got $10!"

"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar,
too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!"

"That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back
when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!"

"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get
anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat
down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they
discovered something important. They didn't have enough money
between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how
our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the
most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them
for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact,
they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat
friendlier.

David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics
University of Georgia

For those who understand, no explanation is needed. For those who
do not understand, no explanation is possible.

I looked up the author of this and he denies writing it.
http://davidk.myweb.uga.edu/

Snoops.com says this about it:
http://www.snopes.com/business/taxes/howtaxes.asp

I thought the end of it smelled of some sort of propaganda, "boys and girls". I have no idea what sort of propaganda, perhaps be happy and don't let taxes get you down. Or maybe stop your bleating stupid sheeple. That last line insinuates if you have to ask then you would not understand. I have never cared much for that sort of condescension.

My take on taxes falls somewhere close to the FairTax.org. In simplicity the more you have money to consume the more taxes you can afford to pay, allowing no one a way to avoid taxation, no matter how well his tax lawyer performs.

Why does Jed believe the more you have the more you are obligated to pay your fellow humans? Because the burden on a man who makes 20k a year paying 1k in taxes has significant lifestyle adjustments over his five percent payment. Whereas a man making 200k a year paying 20k has less lifestyle changes to compensate over for his ten percent payment. If it were not for the dozens of 20k men working for him he would not have that lifestyle at all. Furthermore the man making 200 million a year paying 50 million in taxes still has plenty to do whatever his heart chooses after a twenty five percent tax. He has hundreds of 20k men and dozens of 200k men, he does owe them something for their efforts and his mega success...just sayin'.

I know I did not address death as the title suggest, but why make matters worse?

Dreamless

2007-09-22T00:23:00.000-04:00

What happened? Where did my dreams go?

Mrs. Jed has been talking of trying to buy another house. I can not see it, the vision is gone. Help me out here folks to see the benefits of entering into that fragile commitment once more.

The way I am seeing it at this point buying a house is a foul deal for a wage slave. A man like Jed who barely makes it from pay stub to pay stub. I have to scrimp and use my yearly bonus to have a four thousand dollar used car with a home altered rag top in which I still owe for. Essentially as a low down payment buyer I am renting the house from the bank except all the repairs are mine. If I am barely able to make the rent and the hot water heater kicks the proverbial bucket there is no place for the couple hundred dollars to come from. That does not cover the other inevitabilities like roofs and air handlers. I am seeing the deal as me being food for the machine of amortized interest. The only way I can see buying a house could be feasible would be having over 50% as a down payment. It would be nice if home loans were simple interest loans that had a shorter term like a automobile purchase. At this point and age in my life I am not wanting 360 affordable monthly payments laid out in front of me.

Some folks are owners and some folks are renters...I reckon I am the latter. I will look at it in the most positive of lights and say I am being less materialistic.

If you can think of something positive to home ownership on a low end situation, please comment me some clues.

I am glad my wife has dreams it can't make matters worse.

Hoist your Jolly Roger

2007-09-19T17:12:00.000-04:00

Arrr! It be national speak like a pirate day 'n' I almost missed it. I will post in the lingo ta make up fer lost time.

I missed some hearrty opportunities today ta impress folks with me tales o' the high seas 'n' me visions o' mutiny.

Try ye then ta not make matters worse, mateys.

Good...news?

2007-09-17T20:23:00.000-04:00

Thanks to melting Arctic ice we can get trinkets from China to Scandinavia and Europe even faster by boat. See we built that Panama thing for no good reason. Now that is good news to folks needing low cost, low quality goods and fast!

We might even find more oil! Next thing you know old Jed's a millionaire! I think we are witness to a real habitat irony here. Supposedly using hydrocarbons has caused the ice to melt so we can find more hydrocarbons. Every silver lining has a touch of gray, I think I heard someone say.

There is a lot of stuff to read on the internets. Taking it all personally will make matters worse, so don't.

Blog Slacker

2007-09-16T11:23:00.000-04:00

Hello blog world! I have been a busy man as of the past couple-three weeks. Time has slipped away from me and I have not found time, or should I say made time to write anything.

I owe you something for all the good wishes and prayers about my daughter, an update! I have had several emails asking how she is and I am very glad to report she is doing well with a good prognosis from her doctors. She is considered cancer free, but should keep her dermatologist on speed dial for the rest of her life. She will undergo another lengthy scan in a year to keep watch on her lymphatic systems. Also visual inspection of her skin about every three to six months by a doctor.

It was a bit of a funny story as to how I found she was cancer free. I had asked her on the Friday after her Tuesday scan if she had any news and she said no. Then I called her Monday she said, "no news." Then Tuesday, "no." Then Wednesday I called and she nonchalantly says, "yea, I am fine I don't have to go back for another year." I am feeling all happy and asked why she did not call right away later that Tuesday when she got her news and she replied, "Well, daddy you know I would have called if something was wrong." I got this sinking feeling she was all grown up now.

I suppose it is the same here, as I relay my journeys around the sun on a web log. You can bet your best goat my whiny ass would be typing here about the cruelty and unfairness of life had she received sour news.

This "Heuristic Journeyman/Prophet of the Obvious" sees that us humans are creatures that rarely tell good news as if it were a given like the days in the sun and life itself.

I guess I would not make matters worse if I were to profess the good news and suppress the bad, but it is contrary to my beast.

Happy Labor Day...hell yea

2007-09-03T10:23:00.000-04:00

Hey Now! I hope y'all have a fun labor day and get to take a day to do something fun.

I had an exciting day yesterday working the Boomsday festival for the fair city of Knoxville. It is a huge fireworks show that is suspected to have near 400,000 people come out to watch. The department Basegasket and I work for sets the electrical panels for the vendors and sound systems along Neyland drive. We also service the lighting for the Henley Street bridge where the majority of the fireworks are launched. We are charged with switching the lights off on the Gay and Henley Street bridges a few minutes before the start of the fireworks and relighting them after the show. Just about an hour before the show my boss calls on the two way to ask me if I want to walk with him to the Gay Street controller, having nothing better to do I said, "hell yea". Once there, we were talking about the fact that we needed another truck for quick removal of equipment after the festival so he sends me to see his boss who is stationed at the Henley controller. It took me some time to cross the Gay street bridge and walk to the Henely bridge with all the folks milling about. When I get there our department manager says, "you want to do the honors?", I said "hell yea". He did a count down over the Nextel and when I flipped the switch I heard the roar of a sea of humans reflect off the Tennessee River. It gave me chills and made my face blush to think I did that, hell yea!

On a side note and update to earlier post, I completed my soft top installation and it came out quite well if I do say so myself. I was able to pull off my dream of incorporating the trimmings of the factory interior for a rag top as if Ford motor corp designed it. The Bronco was designed to have a removable roof but Ford never offered the option of a soft top, rumor has it they did not want the warranty situation of a canvas top. Anyway here is a photo of it in my favorite position which is called "Safari".

(click for bigger)

It does fold all the way down too.

(click for bigger)

It looks pretty good while up as well.

(click for bigger)

Another side note and report from an earlier post, please think a good thought or two for my oldest Daughter as she will be going tomorrow for a lengthy anesthetized scan of her lymphatic system as part of her cancer cure.

Put the top down, think good thoughts and hell yea, don't make matters worse.

Busy man and a new blog

2007-08-24T19:40:00.000-04:00

I have been busy trying to customize a soft top for my Bronco and have had not much time for blogging. I am taking the project to a different level than I have ever seen before on a Bronco. My project is different by using the fiberglass top from a donor vehicle at a local junkyard, whereby I can utilize all the factory trimmings for a nice looking installation. I have been busy cutting fiberglass, using body filler, painting and doing some Jedineering on the bow set-up. Another feature to my idea is the ability to store the whole top and mount erected so it doesn't get all cracked up while wadded up in a pile during the winter...hopefully. Here are some images, a picture can't make matters worse in this case.

Now to my friends new blog who is a busy guy himself. He is from the upper Appalachian chain in New York state and has relocated to our part of the finest mountain range in the whole damn world. Basegasket will be a blog to watch as this guy is one of the most dynamic fellas I have ever had the pleasure to meet. He, like Jed has worn many hats throughout his life. He knows a bit about everything in the physical world and puts his hands and boots right in the thick of it.

Americans duped...once more

2007-08-14T20:23:00.000-04:00

Not only are we giving our kids lead painted toys made in China we are suffering from the fact Mattel's leaders can't afford to hire Americans. When will the greedy stockholders and leaders realize that you can't ship all your production to China and expect unemployed people to buy them? Now, how much will the recall cost? Just a little more than paying fellow countrymen to work, I'll bet.

Meanwhile we are being sold a bogus war lead by a corrupt White House. Honestly I do believe we are being lied to about everything leading into this war, the economy and current lawmaking to keep us safe.

It can't make matters worse to start looking at things around you. If we are going to have an enemy it better be fascism first.

Two years in blogger

2007-08-08T16:23:00.000-04:00

I started this here blog two years ago on my birthday (which is today). I ain't covered anything special or broke any news stories. I ain't presented any view that a million or so other people haven't come across days, weeks or years earlier.

Although I have brought to this world something unique and never before duplicated, me. Thats right me! The literal center of my universe, me. Those of you who know Jed have never before seen this exact Heuristic Prophet of the Obvious, even though you may know other Prophets of similar circumstance, they are not me.

It is a good day to be alive and know the folks I know here, and in the other worlds that I frequent. Some of which overlap and some are singular random meetings. I am glad to have them all.

A thankful man never makes matters worse in my eyes. Count me in the thankful fold of this one of a kind wrinkle of time passing.

Earth to B-B-Q

2007-07-29T19:23:00.000-04:00

Cosmic Communication Transcript:

Come in B-B-Q, we have a mission for you from Earth's Mid Lake station.

B-B-Q your breaking up! Your thermal levels are uncontrollable, please be advised to close the dampening hatch.

Steady as she goes B-B-Q, fuel levels are nominal.

The other day I was poking around trying to help my little smoker perform more like a grill by adding the aluminum flare from an old baseball field light. After I fashioned handles I noticed the smoker looked somewhat like a sad little robot burnt from re-entry into the atmosphere. So I started the cosmic communication transcribed above for my own pleasure. My neighbor most likely overheard my ramblings, but I was having fun being a kid and not making matters worse.

Update: My wife says I need a hobby.

No End in Sight

2007-07-27T19:23:00.000-04:00

We may need to go see this film my fellow Americans.

To question your country's leadership is your duty as a citizen. Anyone who says questioning an elected official is anti-American is just plain making matters worse.

Chickenhawk explained

2007-07-23T19:23:00.000-04:00

This little video really made me understand the term Chickenhawk. Give it a watch it can't make matters any worse.

Hands on Jed

2007-07-12T21:23:00.000-04:00

Y'all know how I like posting about things I use at work. Well, I got me some new gloves, and I am going to tell you about them after I tell you something else.

Today as I was locking up the bays at work when the main electrician for the Facilities department came up and said he really liked what I had done with the lights at one of our river parks.

Now let me back up a little and tell you about this man. He is a difficult case to say the least. Don't get me wrong he ain't evil all the time, just real-real unpredictable. I was his main helper for about nine months and I found the best way to deal with his polarity shifts was to keep moving. I figured a moving target is harder to strike. Don't get me wrong either, there were times when I was up the line from him and wanted to send him a little 480 volt surprise when he was in a real rude mood. Just a little humbling heart failure. I hope you all know I wouldn't, but it did cross my cross mind a time or two.

Now back to this rare at-a-boy to me. Months back I designed and built these heavy expanded steel HID light fixture coverings/replacement lenses that look like something built for the set of Mad Max. Because folks kept throwing rip-rap at them or shooting them to get some night time privacy while parked there. Some things I just don't want to know, don't make matters worse by being a witness I always say. I remember an old saying that said something like: A bad man gives a good man a job. Anyway my grumpy co-worker said I did a great job.

I would like to not so subtly change the subject back to my new work gloves. I have a pair of others that I use for climbing that have fingers, but I am thinking I may use these for everything, because they are just too dang handy (punny I know)! I can wear them for hours with the greatest of comfort and they make my hands feel much stronger.

If you see Jed around town just shout out, "let me see your gloves" and I will know you know at least as much as I know.

My new Bronco

2007-07-07T20:23:00.000-04:00

Well I hate to jinx it, but things are looking a little better around here for me. I got me a new Ford Bronco, new to me anyway. She is a sweet 1994 XLT (middle year of the fifth generation of Broncos) model with a kind set of pipes (Flowmasters) that sounds like the tuned rumble of four Harleys. It is a cool teal green color that sometimes looks black and sometimes looks blue. She is sporting tint on all the glass that's way past too dark. On a sunny day, it always looks like a storms a comin'. I think someone loved her with passion before we met.

If you will remember I sold my other Bronco due to its transmission dying. Then it came back, for a while. I have another now because I have never found a vehicle I liked better or found more useful. This is my third Ford Bronco. My first was a third generation type (1986 the last year of that generation) with the Eddie Bauer package. My second was a fifth generation (1992 the first year of that generation) Custom package. I am very excited to have it and it is nice to have folks take a second look and say, "Nice Bronco Man."

It is nice to drive a motorcar that has appeal in muscle car circles as well as four-wheel gear heads.

She is wearing the "Hey Now" tag my others wore, as well as a Dead head sticker my daughter gave me .

I call it my small penis compensator to know my caste in life and not make matters worse.

Captain America Dead

2007-06-30T22:23:00.000-04:00

I've not had much time for blogging as I have been making hay while the sun is shining. I truly have missed it.

I saw this article about Captain America being sniped off while heading to court. He was protesting a law making him and all the super heroes register their real identity.

I find this upsetting after seeing "SiCKO," the film about our greedy uncaring health care system, thanks to R.Neil (formally known as South Knox Bubba). He's over at Knox Views and treated fifty-five people to a movie that puts a bit of perspective on the greed disease in health care that America is suffering from.

I will try and avoid my normal whiney approach about more work hours and less success and try and not make matters worse.

While in the theater viewing this film, I felt so sorry for myself, my family and my fellow Americans. I felt even more helpless today with Captain America dead on top of it all. I do hope we can get back to by the people, for the people without violent revolution.

Let us all remember this upcoming holiday for what it was; liberation from a real bad deal.

Read, understand, ask questions and vote. It is your responsibility to do so.

Daughters

2007-06-03T10:23:00.000-04:00

I hope you folks know how much I appreciate your good and kind thoughts on my oldest daughter's affliction. Many of us bloggers post about kittens and such, so please forgive me as I post about my progeny. She is doing well after a lengthy MRI on Wednesday which showed no signs of cancer migration. Another scan in a few months will reveal the same I pray.

Castle in Sunny Southern California's Disney Land and link.

Camry and I were visiting the other day in the hospital and we were talking about her younger sister Castle's creativity. Castle can't have a myspace page so she has been creating word pad documents for her own amusement as if she had readers. I lifted the photos she pasted and edited the shortened "teen-ease-sms-aim-shorthand" from the document. I am gathering she saw a menu item that inspired this little photo report on the elusive Maple Chicken and thusly the Chicken Tree.

The Maple Chicken Tree

The Chicken Tree is a very rare specimen.

Have a good time looking at my site.....
yeah!!!

Aren't they cute?

(below) Another picture of a Chicken Tree

Maple Chickens grow on the Maple Chicken Tree.
Yeah, pretty freakin' awesome.

Their fears: enough said...

The food they eat...yum?

In America people wonder if the Maple Chickens eat
the Maple leaves...well we have the answer for you,
right here, right now!

It's freakin' awesome!

(In the fall) they eat the Maple leaves,
and this is what happens.

weird huh?

(below) Is a close-up and personal picture
of the Chicken Tree (with hatchling)

Thank you for taking the time to read my page.
It means soooo much to me.
I hope you had a great time looking at my site.

-Castle Courageous

this page is not alligal [sic] in South America.....its not even a real page

Many thanks to Miss Castle for her information/perception on the Maple Chicken Tree. Thanks also to her big sister for bringing it to my attention and sending an attached file in her email to me.

Carry on my sweet girls and don't make matters worse, love Dad.

Go home damn yankee racist!

2007-05-26T21:23:00.000-04:00

Today me and Mountain Girl went down to watch a bunch of out-of-town racist get r-u-n-n-o-f-t! I guess they came down to see if we would be interested in joining the Klan with them, I am guessing they did not win any hearts today. A bunch of clowns run them off with kazoo symphony.

If you fight fire with fire, then you must fight absurd with absurd.
So this battle was won hands down!

Here is a pic of Mountain Girl getting the photos for you
(lifted from the racist web site).
She was on the clown's side of the street, 'course.

You have to love Knoxville...even if you don't all the time.

Them clowns sure did not make matters worse.

Worry, worry, worry...hope.

2007-05-14T21:23:00.000-04:00

All the doctor would say to ease our worry about the melanoma he found on my dear daughter's back was, "profoundly unusual in a person fifteen". Her mom took her to the doc to see about this little black spot on her right shoulder blade a couple of weeks ago. A couple days ago it came back positive for melanoma. She went today, her fifteenth birthday, and saw the surgeon and oncologist. They will be cutting a 2 inch by 3 or so inch almond shape gash of flesh as deep as the muscle will allow without damage in my dear daughter tomorrow.

I tried to tell her that being under general anesthesia is not as bad as it sounds and to not be afraid, because they do it every day. "Yea", she said, "but not to me!"

Now thats profound!

I hope this thing has not progressed any deeper than what they take out tomorrow. If I could just have this wish, I would give my very life. It seems that a spot on the trunk of the body is about as complicated as it comes when trying to track its path to a lymph node, because the nodes for the back are inside the chest cavity.

Just please help Jed to not make matters worse and think a good thought or two for me and mine when you get a spell to do so. Thanks

Update Friday 5/18:
Thanks all for your positive energies and sweet prayers! The big chunk out of her back that did not show or indicate any advanced progression of cancer! They are still going to do a full upper body MRI sometime next week so keep doing what you are doing!

It is not making matters worse.

Heuristic Prophet

2007-05-06T16:23:00.000-04:00

The thinker (from one Jed to another)

As a simple prophet of the obvious I am considering an upgrade in my status as a Prophet. I can do that since I am self proclaimed seer in this realm. I am finding in my travels around our sun star that I am heuristic which means, in simplistic terms, trial and error. A trial and error prophet suits me in my spiritual growth at this point. Mere observation is not enough to base my prophecies on. The root of the word eureka is heuristic, so it says to me discovery by putting my hands on the wheel and turning in the right direction by knowing other directions have yielded failure.

I would like to challenge y'all to find what kind of prophet you are. Tell the world about your prophecy and your title therein. Like all the motivational sorts say, you can manifest your own destiny by claiming your place in the future. Name it and claim it, if you will. It is a mission statement, or more like a mission title, to not make matters worse.

thinking of this girl I miss

May Day!

2007-05-01T23:23:00.000-04:00

Y'all know this man, y'all know he don't seem to be hearing what his boss wants. I don't think he knows who his boss really is. I am thinking after today we should show him.

If I say more I would just make matters worse.

Timberland Jed

2007-04-28T13:23:00.000-04:00

Y'all know how Jed loves his boots! Jed studies these items close because nothing keeps him as happy as having comfy feet while doing the business of lighting his City.

These babies are the shiznit! Timberland PRO® "Know-How™", with shock resistant soles, waterproof membrane, ladder lock arch system, steel toe and shank boots are my new City purchased equipment. I like to post about them because I am proud to have them and it helps me keep a record of how long they last. I am normally a Doc Martins® fan because I figure for white boy feet the English cobblers have been doing it the longest and have the craft down to a science. For the now it looks like I am a proud Timberland Jed.

It never makes matters worse to find the right tool for the job.

As for the Thinking Blogger Award (I am so flattered to have been picked, but so not worthy) meme all of my links are in my top five depending on the day, that is why I have them and browse them on a regular basis. You folks know how much I care for the Wandering Hillbilly of course and Anne Johnson, well she just plain rocks. My home town buddy Joe Powell over at Cup of Joe Powell is one perceptive and articulate man I am proud to know. Newsie she has that same sparkle as Joe and The Editor I bet them folks pass a few emails a day behind the scene. Red Molly is dear to my heart as the sweetest lady and fanciest cook on the internets. That Julie is always around town and makes me smile when we cross paths. God Almighty is slow to post (in God's time I guess), but for a concept his blog has me checking almost every day even when months pass without a word...very much like my personal dogma experience.

Be well and make matters better, you fine thinkers! As for me, damage control is established by not making them worse.

Prophet of the Obvious explained and excited

2007-04-23T19:23:00.000-04:00

I made this flag a few weeks ago and I am just flattered as all-get-out that it is widely accepted. I feel bona fide and excited. People ask, "Jed ain't you mad this thing is growing and you ain't makin' no money?" I say, "Hell no, didn't make it for money, made it for love, pride and joy." They look at me like I am stupid, like I live in a different place than they do. Besides I got a sticker for my truck out of it from Rednecromancer, and a lot of kudos from the smart and kind folks at Appalachian Greens.

I wanted to tell everyone who uses this little flag how happy I am to see it waving in the headers of the fine thinking weblogs like yours! Let me know in the comments who you all are and you will get a linker from the Jed iffin you want it.

As most of you know I call myself the Prophet of the Obvious because I offer nothing to the blogosphere that ain't already been said a thousand times before I've stumbled across it. I offer my obvious point of view, from my under educated eyes. I am concerned for the piles of little people who support the very few "great" ones. Hell, I figure without means, I have no control over anyone except myself. I barely got reign over that!

I don't like being over charged, over taxed, tricked with schemes and lawyers, underpaid, under served, under appreciated, neglected, ignored, belittled, deceived or anything that takes from me without asking in a very real and obvious manner. If a subject takes too much haggle after the fact then it most likely is purely designed to fool the lesser gifted sorts like Jed. I will call them out in my normal "whiney-assed-wish-things-were different" way that is my own. I think that capitalism has reached a plateau in America where some aspects need to be changed to protect workers/consumers from legalistic loophole side stepping. If this sort of thinking makes me a socialist-pinko-commie, then so be it. It doesn't need be another law or ethics committee (we got too many that ain't workin'), it needs to be a matter of known fact, obvious really: take no more than you need from your dealings, examine your needs daily. Do it because you care and want to make a fair place for your babies (or any beloved ones) to live and grow. Turn the soil fine for your land, don't show up for the harvest and leave. Make someplace your real home and it will pay off. It appears to this observer that past superpowers have fallen due to the same mistakes we are seeing/making now. Misplaced goals, it is as simple as that. Invest in people, always invest in people because without them there is no market at all. Invest in exploration, because there are things to be found. Our table of elements has some open spaces, one of them might be the solution to unlock the Utopia we all seek.

That is all I do as an Obvious Prophet, try and not make matters worse, which is harder to do than change things sometimes.

Slow Motion Explosion

2007-04-18T22:23:00.000-04:00

It can be very dark these days reading about war, starvation and random acts of horrific violence. I try not to make matters worse and step back. When I hear about things that I am supposed to try and understand about my own human kind, I get very confused. So it helps to consider something I am not suppose to understand at all. One favorite place to stop on my escape path is the fact that all this is all one large slow motion explosion. An explosion so large in such a large space that compared to our size it appears to barley be moving.

I really hope before more things are rearranged we consider what haste during grief does to us and our society. I hope all who have their hands on the wheel remember the slow motion explosion is what the biggest thing is made from.

You never gain something...

2007-04-08T10:23:00.000-04:00

...but that you lose something. Quote stolen from "Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance". I saw something on Craigslist for sale that made me think of that book and the philosophy it presents. It is the same type of bike the author John Pirsig took across country with his son. His novel made me think of how the micro dynamics of machines were similar to the metaphysical part of being human as my wife and I took turns reading aloud a chapter at a time when we had no TV.

These bikes had wonderful design in form and function.

A sweet barn find of a Honda Super Hawk for sale fairly cheap made me start that dreaming thing once more about having a motorbike. The price made me think it was possible, but the fix up cost would leave me face down once more when I considered everything as a whole. I did make a phone/internet friend who has ties to this big motorbike shop near Nashville.

He did encourage me to keep the dream alive in my heart, because dreams are affordable and don't make matters worse.

Whittlin' Jed

2007-03-30T21:00:00.000-04:00

Once more Jed sits with a heavy heart and whittles. I guess one can call cutting glass whittling.

Either way It don't make matters any worse to have a beer after cutting the grass, then cut the glass.

Nice Knoxville blog

2007-03-26T21:08:00.000-04:00

Hey now! I got a nice letter from the folks who run this blog about Knoxville and I like them. They sum up Knoxville's blog scene and offer other useful information about things going on around here. They also offer a handy iMap applet for things specific to the Knoxville influenced valley. I am adding them to Jed's Links for future browsing. If you are interested in this little part of the big old world look to these guys to give you the skinny.

Try and not make matters worse, which is harder to do than change things sometimes.