What Will Happen Next?

Warning: This post may be capable of putting you to sleep! Read with caution.

Wow, the last day of February already huh? Hard to believe it, but I guess time continues to march forward. I appologize for starting my blog with sad news, but I think it's better to get it out of the way and finish on a positive note. Friday night Laura and I were going to town, and we went to get in my pick-up and when I tried to start it up....it wouldn't start. Well POO! So Saturday was spent looking at the truck and trying to determine the problem. Sunday rolled around and we watched the NASCAR race, then afterwards went to the garage and the truck started right up. We took a ride around town for nearly a hour and arrived home without any trouble. Yesterday the truck wouldn't start and today is the same story. To top off the weekend, I got a call Saturday from Home Depot. They decided to go with another applicant for the lot attendant position. I don't know what qualifications they were seeking, but evidently a college degree wasn't good enough! Laura thought perhaps someone who had graduate school experience was choosen... Ha ha - that is very likely around here.

Oh well, life goes on and I keep looking for something more desirable.

On with more cheerful things now. Sad as it may be, the highlight of our day thus far was the street cleaner rolling past this morning to clean our curb! HURRAY! All those leaves and junk that has been in the street since the fall are finally...well...pushed around and kind of cleaned up. In actuallity the street sweeper didn't clean much at all. At least it's a new look for the street.

As you can see, excitement never finds a dull moment for me! How about I find a picture and wrap this thing up before the wall come crashing in with the roof...

I am continuing to scan the pictures from the house, and I am up around 225 pictures now. Here is a picture looking west by northwest from the back corner of the house. Dad and Lana are working on the wall next to the garage while Rylan and I put down the blocks in the garage foundation. These blocks are under the pavement and are not even visable, I think that's why dad let me and Rylan do the work on that part. If you look to the top center and left of the photo you can see our old neighborhood and if you know what to look for you can see our old house as well.

I will post more pictures this week of the basement being finished and next week the start of the wood framing! That's all for today. Until again

-=Nolan=-

...And Now...The Amazing Nolan!

First things first. Check out the amazing trick I have preformed using an apple juice jug. This is simply amazing is it not? I assure you ladies and gentlemen, there were no camera tricks used. Please hold your applause until the blog is complete.

Back to reality now... After having some trouble with our camera, I finally managed to pull the images off of the memory card and get them on the computer. I am not sure what the trouble was with the camera, but it sure didn't want to cooperate with me. So I am finally getting around to posting a few pictures which I have taken recently.

Here's a photo I took during the last full moon. It is from inside our apartment and looking across the street though the trees in our neighbors backyard. I am still trying to understand exactly how to use the camera to get the best dusk/night shots possible so practice is the best way to learn.

And I can't forget the cake I made for Valentines day. Here we see a chocolate fudge cake, covered in chocolate frosting and white frosting heart. I would say this was the worst cake I have made in my amature baking career. It's not that the cake wasn't good, it was because I tried to finish all the white frosting off and in doing so I made a very thick layer of frosting. I layerd the chocolate frosting on and then returned with the white frosting. This resulted in over an inch of frosting on top of the cake. Laura decided she would eat around the heart and I was left to finish it off myself. Oh well, I will know better next time.

Last night we recieved close to an inch of snow yet again. It began as a rain and turned to snow, so the roads were quite dangerous last night but we had nowhere to go so we stayed inside and watched American Idol. I don't know what my fasination has been with American Idol this year, I usually don't care for such shows, but maybe this just proves my boredom lately.

Finally, I must show my support for my alma mater, The University of Nebraska at Kearney Lopers are at the Rocky Mountain Athletic Confernece championships today and tomorrow for indoor track. After being through four indoor track events I am fully aware of what happens and how difficult they can be. Regardless of the outcome they are always a lot of fun and you get to see some great competition. Go Lopers!That's all for today. Hopefully Laura and I can find something exciting to do this weekend so I will have something more interesting to talk about come Monday. Have a great weekend! Until again

-=Nolan=-

Fixin' Computers

I hope you enjoyed some of the ghost town pictures. I didn't update yesterday so I could leave them as the top post for a little longer so more people could see them. I have to admit, my fasination with history really keeps me excited to see more places and to study them as well. I never imagined that I would be visiting Rhyolite after all the work I had done in Nebraska and I studied Rhyolite on my free time. Then on our honeymoon we took a trip from Las Vegas to Death Valley and we were able to stop and see the town. Laura wasn't too excited to be there when the temperatures were over 100, but I wasn't gonna let some heat stop me from checking things out after we had gone so far, but I did cut my visit short so we could keep moving... I didn't get to see the jail and some of the other buildings which were still there, but I guess we will save that for next time!

Yesterday started out as a typical day. I checked my e-mail, read some other people's blogs, and caught up on news around the world. Around noon the phone rang, it was some of the people from the first-year grad students from the chemistry department. One of them had called for Laura and one called for me to help with a computer problem and wanted help. After talking with several people, including technical support, he got nothing accomplished. I'm not sure exactly how he knew about me fixing computers, but I told him I could make a trip to his house and see what the case was. So I walked down to the bus stop to meet Laura and walk home with her and we then went to town. We decided that formatting the computer and reinstalling everything was the best option and after an hour and a half we had things up and running better than before. I was happy things worked and that I was able to fix the computer - I actually had to do things differently than I usually do when I fix computers, but all in all the results were the same. As payment we went out to The Iron Horse Brew Pub in downtown Missoula and had a nice evening out on the town. I know Laura liked it, and this is the second time this month we have gone out to do something - we went to Munich when it was in the theater.... and that's how our typical Wednesday turned into a fun day.

Now for something you have been waiting for. A picture! I am getting close to being done with scanning photos of the house, and here's one from long ago. This is Lake Little - one of the first times it rained a few inches and we were swamped for a few days. Our blocks took a spill into the drink and made for some extra work in pulling them out of the mud and cleaning them off, but that was no big deal. You can see we had a good start with the walls, but we had to give it up for a few days and find something to do on the dry groud, which was hard to find at the time.

Here is a great picture of everyone working on the basement. I think this day the temperature reached 100 at ground level, but we had no breeze working in the basement and the our thermometer was hitting 110 easy. You can see my uncle Gary working on the wall in the theater room on left side of the picture. In the middle you can see Lana working the mortar while I work on the utility room wall, yes the wall is still standing and very stable... On the right side Rylan and dad are working on the wall next to the garage along the basement hallway. This is another one of those days I will never forget because it was hot and very uncomfortable in the basement, but we were already behind with the flooding so we had to take what we could get.

That does it for todays blog. Laura is going to be home early this afternoon. We don't have anything planned, but maybe we will find something exciting to do. The temperature is near 40 already this morning and we might actually have a warm day on hand!
Until again

-=Nolan=-

Nolan Has Returned

Well my thanks go to Laura for her contribution yesterday and her wonderful style for posting a blog. My brain seemed to have drawn a blank yesterday after my job interview. The interview wasn't too bad, but then again it wasn't too go either... I was prepared for the usual questions, you know they types - what are your strenghts and why do you want to work here...but then they flipped things on me and starting asking questions like "What you your former employees think of you and what was the outcome of you working with them?" Huh? What was the outcome of working with them? Well, we started fires, we were unproductive and we didn't follow instructions... I don't remember how I actually answered the question - I sat there a few moments and finally asked what that question was supposed to mean. I still didn't get a clear answer and I don't believe the lady interviewing me knew exactly what it meant either... Don't ask questions you don't understand...

My thought process seems to still be wired a little funny after trying to configure itself to answering some of those questions... The best part was at the end when I had to do role playing with the woman interviewing me and she was a very upset customer. She was obviously very uncomfortable doing it, but I tried by best to keep things light and do things as best as possible... What a weird interview...

Now for some pictures. I know that's why everyone keeps coming back. It's not to hear what is happening in my life - it's to see what kind of great pictures I will post and then talk about.. Well, you are in for a treat today. I am going to post some pictures I have taken over the last few years of ghost towns. I studied them for my senior research project and gave a public presentation of my findings at the end of April 2005... Here's some of the pictures I took..

Here is the mercantile building that still stands in Dunlap, Nebraska. This is between Chadron and Alliance right next to the Niobrara river - just downstream from the Box Butte Reservior. The river is literally right behind me in the picture.
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These ruins are what remain of Antioch, Nebraska. Antioch was founded to mine potash during World War I. The potash industry was dominated by the Germans, so when The United States had no source of import they turned to the Sandhills of Nebraska in old alcali lakes. Potash wass used in fertilizer and bombs. Antioch is along highway 2 east of Alliance and you can easily see it from the highway.
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This is the old train tunnel at Belmont, Nebraska. This is the only tunnel in the state and it was built in 1880. The tunnel is 800 feet long. This was one of my favorite places to visit. You can see where the smoke from the engines was left on the top of the tunnel. Belmont was actually established as a station for the old steam engines to hook up. You see, Belmont is ontop of a steep grade known as The Crawford Climb and steam engines often needed help from another engine to make it up the hill. The steam engine would be sent out to meet the train coming and then take it up the climb to Belmont where the train would stop, take on passengers and the helper engine would await the next train to approach the grade. The tunnel was built to make the climb more gradual. Today the BNSF has a grade to the southwest of the tunnel that has been blasted out. Belmont is located off of highway 2 between Marsland and Crawford.
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Here's a shot of the sign at Lodi, Nebraska and the cemetary in the background. Lodi is between Oconto and Callaway, Nebraska along highway 40. I first gathered interest for ghost towns when I was young. My grandmother told my parents about the cemetary and we stopped on our way home to see some relatives graves. So perhaps you can say I have had the ghost town crazy since I was small and grandma didn't help keep it away!
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These buildings are all that remains of Sartoria, Nebraska. Sartoria was on the South Loup River 20 miles north-northwest of Kearney and 7 miles west of Pleasanton.

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I am now going to take you to the Amargosa Desert of Nevada.

This is a picture looking at the major structors still standing in Rhyolite, Nevada. Rhyolite is just southwest of Beatty, Nevada and just a few miles from Death Valley. Rhyolite was established as a mining community in the early 1900's. In the picture you see the biggest building, the Cook Bank, too the left you see the Porter General Store, and the school is behind the bank. The railroad station is directly behind me. It was over 100 here when I was snapping these photos. Death Valley is just over the first set of mountains in the picture. If you have been to Death Valley in the summer then you know what kind of heat I am talking about.
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This is actually a house that was built and lived in by Tom Kelly. Tom built the house out of Adolphus Busch beer bottles. There are over 30,000 bottles in the walls and the building is now an informal visitor center.
__________________________________________________________________This is the school house that was finished in 1907. The school board had to float a $20,000 bond to build it and the bond wasn't payed off until 1972 which was more than 40 years after the town was abandoned.
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This is the Porter General Store that was built in 1906. You an easily see the sidewalk and the grates they used. The grates were about 10 feet deep and you can see the basement of the general store and where the grould level was.
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The train station has been fenced off from public viewing. I think there was structural problems that deemed it unsafe.
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Obviously I didn't take this photo, but you can compare it to the one below. This is the John S. Cook Bank around the year 1905. This picture was evidently taken from something sitting higher than where I stood below. I stood on the road - and it appears to me that perhaps this one was taken from a stagecoach or maybe a stage which was erected for a street dance or something.
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I consider this picture one of the best pictures I have taken when it comes to comparing modern day to past photos. As the picture above shows, this is the John S. Cook Bank in Rhyolite, Nevada. It was a four story building and the safe in the bank could hold $1,000,000.00 (1 million) in COINS! The basement was were the post office was. My picture was taken 100 years after the one above. The Cook Bank is one of the most photographed buildings when it comes to ghost towns - it is probably the most photographed in the United States. While we were visiting Rhyolite there were several other people stop by just to see the ghost town. We also visited the graveyard, what's left of it that is.

Well, those are some of the many pictures and towns I visited. These are some of my favorite pictures I have taken or places I have visited. Hopefully I will be able to start visiting some more ghost towns around Montana. Until again

-=Nolan=-

The Laura Addition

Well Nolan informed me that he is at a loss for what to blog today so I said that I would help him out. To start, we watched (Nolan watched while I did a puzzle) the Daytona 500. Sparks really flew in this year's race as Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth butted head. Basically, Tony Stewart was being a cry baby and blaming Matt Kenseth for his own race mistakes. In his anger, Tony very diliberately shoved Matt Kenseth into the grass about mid-race. However, Tony was not even black-flagged for the incident. We were a little dissapointed to see that Matt did retaliate later and was black-flagged for his "aggressive" driving. Tony also tried to ram another racer later in the race which shows what as unsportman-like driver he can be. In other news, Nolan had a job interview today at Home Depot. He was a little distraught by some of the interview questions (i.e. How would you deal with an irrate customer; cite examples from past work experiences and the outcomes). It will probably be good for him though in the long run because I'm sure he will run into other difficult interviews in the future. While Nolan was being interviewed, I was at work. Today was actually a holiday at the school but those are some of the best days to work because there are so few people around making it much easier to get a lot of work done. I had a two hour break this morning while a reaction was running so I went for a walk up the M-trail. The M-trail is located on Mt. Sentinel (the mountain just East of the UofM campus - see picture). It was a nice walk because I did not run into anyone on the typically bustling trail. Due to the lack of people, the trail was nice and quiet so I was able to spot some mule deer and voles (little rodents that look kind of like mice). The rest of the day was fairly uneventful until about 3 this afternoon when someone started a small fire in the building. The fire deparment and the police arrived and talked to a bunch of us who had been in the building. It really was not that unusual of an occurence for a chemistry building but it did "spcie-up" the afternoon a bit. Well now that Nolan has had a day off from blogging he should be able to think of some new news for tomorrow's blog addition.

Disclaimer: The views expressed by Laura are not neccessarily those of Nolan

Staying Warm

Now today feels like an actual winter day. As of 10:00 this morning we were at a warm -10F with a wind chill around -30F. Take a look at the US temperatures this morning. Even the warm places have found themselves to be a little colder than usual. You know it's cold when your expected high for the day doesn't reach zero. You can see at the bottom of my sidebar on the right side what the current temperature is now. Laura and I had thought about going geocaching, but I am afraid it might be a little too cold to get out and search with bare hands!

In other news, I got a call yesterday from Home Depot. I have an interview Monday but I am having trouble deciding if I want to take the job. The main reason is it is a part time job, I would have to work weekends and evenings, and right now that's about the only time I get to see Laura. Oh, and did mention the job is "Lot Attendant"? I help customers load their vehicles and push carts around. Don't take it the wrong way, I have nothing against this job, but after 4 years of college I am a little insulted with the job offer, especially at part time. However, the money would be nice - and if I can start off at $8 an hour or better I might just take it and try to work 2 jobs for awhile. It's hard to explain how things are around Missoula. Housing cost is ridiculous - an average trialer house starts out around $55,000. A 1,400 sq. ft. house, city lot, one level, no garage, starts off around $175,000.
Jobs are hard to come by, and when I talked to the woman on the phone at Home Depot she asked me if I would be interested in the job, and I said 'not really, but I wouldn't turn it down.' To which she laughed at, knowing that if you can find a job around here that you better grab on and hold on.

Here's another picture of the basement of our house. This is after we had the footings poured. I remember this day quite well. I was up and working on the house with dad around 6:00 a.m. and helped finish digging the footings for the inspector to check out at 8:00 a.m. before I took off for school. The foots where Rylan is standing are close to two feet thick - wow was that a heck of a good time digging!
The real fun was awaiting us though - this basement would prove to be quite a test. I will explain that when I show those pictures. The field in the background on the left side is no longer a field, it is full of houses now. Amazing how quickly the landscape can change in a matter of five years.

That's all for today. I am going to work on staying warm and scanning pictures. Until again

-=Nolan=-

Destruction & Construction

Well, after backing up all of the pictures, I found a few of the pictures I took last week. Take a look here - it appears someone missed the corner and forgot to stop before hitting the fence. This happened over night so I feel pretty confident when I say this was influenced by a certain liquid. There is a park two blocks away and there were tire tracks over the lawn where the vehicle evidently had been spinning around. What a safe feeling I get from seeing all this. It seems that this is a common thing around here though. People drive through fences all over the area of town we live in. We have a hill that is a mile long - at the bottom the road turns at 45 degrees and during the winter a lot of people go too fast down the hill and right through the fence.


Onto other things now... My computer has been running smoothly since Monday and I am really happy it is. I have been scanning pictures and organizing all the files I have been saving on the laptop, and I have really missed MY computer. I have been scanning pictures of the house my family built. I have scanned 170 pictures so far and I still have a bunch to scan. Here is a picture of the basement being dug out. This was back in May of 1999. Oh! If we only knew what we were in for.This was taken looking East. If you stand in the stop now you won't see anything except a wall, but if you walk around the house and look down the street all you see is houses and more houses. Our precious little neighborhood was quickly invaded by the urban sprawl monster. That's all for now. Until again

-=Nolan=-

Back Up

Today I have spent most of the day working on backing up my computer media. Namely my pictures. I have decided after almost 5 years that I SHOULD have been doing this long ago, but I am just now getting it done. Believe it or not, I have more than 8 gigabites of just pictures, totallying 8756 pictures. Yeah, that's a lot of pictures. It's a good idea to make back up copies of all your CD's and pictures. You never know when something might happen and you lose them all.

I thought I would have a lot to blog today, but I really don't. So maybe I will just post a random picture and share the story behind it. Sounds good to you?

Here is a picture I took of Laura's engagement ring and one of the flowers she got. I got everything set up before hand and took this picture. It was a Wednesday. We had track practice in the afternoon, so after classes I got everything put together, made some brownies, got flowers... So after practice I told Laura we had some geocaching to do - and so she started looking for her 'special' secret caches - and awaiting her at the final find was her ring. How fun! We had a lot of fun and laughed about it, as we always do about things. What a good picture to show after Valentines Day huh? Until again

-=Nolan=-

Valentines Day Post

Well, I thought about posting the usual news and information that I always post...but at the last minute I have decided that perhaps that information can wait until another day - like tomorrow. Today is reserved for expressing love, so I will do my best…

Laura and I have been married for almost 8 months now. Of those 8 months, we have been here in Montana for over 6 of them. Now you have to understand when I was growing up I didn’t like being away from home. If I was away from home for more than two weeks I was getting VERY homesick. Part of that homesickness was my fault; mostly thinking that my friends would forget about me, especially two weeks for a child seems like half of an eternity. So when I found myself married and preparing to move I was a little surprised in myself – especially the fact that I was moving to a town I had never been to, a basement apartment we hadn’t seen, and we were moving everything on our own – no moving crew or U-haul, we were on our own. Looking back on the move we were exceptionally fortunate to make it here without any car trouble. Considering Laura was driving the Subaru and I was in the pick-up and we had everything we owned packed into the two cars, we had a recipe for disaster. The one thing about the move that stands out in my mind is on our second day, our trip from Cheyenne to Missoula. We left Cheyenne at 6:00 in the morning, twilight was just beginning and we had 800 miles to cover at a speed of 60-65 mph. I think it was the slow pace at which we traveled as we ventured down the Interstate to new places together, but with every passing mile I found myself thinking “every mile we travel this way, means another mile farther to get back home.” This thought sat a little heavy, but at the same time I could look ahead and see Laura driving along, a little scared and a little excited to see what was in store for us, and I knew we were doing everything together.

I think my point to my little story is that love can do strange things to people. Take me for instance, I was never leaving Kearney, never going to be too far away from home, actually if I could have had it my way I probably would have lived in the same house my entire life and been quite happy. So here I am 1,200 miles from home, not particularly enjoying the Missoula lifestyle, but defiantly enjoying who I get to spend my time with. So when it really boils down to it, I guess you can see it this way… Would I be happier in Nebraska, where things were ‘normal’ and without Laura OR would I be happier with Laura and be millions of miles from home?

I guess the answer is apparent.

Laura takes good care of me, she gives me a reason to get up in the mornings (even though I don’t want to wake up at the time) and she cooks every evening after she has been at the lab all day. I can’t ask for anyone better. Laura loves to be outdoors and go hiking, running, hunting, walking, geocaching, whatever we can find to do outside! Laura can put up with my fanatical crazes to have computers ripped apart and pieces lying all over the office area for days on end while I wait for a new part to arrive. She toughs out the cold and goes along when I want to go hunting, but don’t want to sit in the duck blind all day by myself. She always has a hug for me when we see each other after a long day or just a few hours. I think the thing that stands above them all is the fact that she can put up with me when I am 'weird' as she might say; being goofy and joking around. She gives me that look "you are the craziest person in the world" which I guess I would have to agree with on occasion. All and all, I am one lucky guy to have such a great friend and wife to be with me day in and day out. I LOVE LAURA! Happy Valentines Day!

Until again

-=Nolan=-

The Travels of Nolan & Laura

As I mentioned yesterday, the atlas is one of my best friends. Any time I am hitting the road, I dig the atlas out (usually not very deep) and away we go! One of my favorite things to do is highlight the roads we have traveled on so we can see the many places we have gone. Laura and I were travleing together long before we started dating. We were both on the track and cross country teams in college, so we literally logged thousands of miles before we started dating and keeping track of our travels. Any of our travels before we started dating don't count.

Here are some pictures of the atlas as of today - you can see Nebraska, Wyoming and around Missoula. You can see from the picture of Nebraska that we have covered many of the routes around the state. Keep in mind, this basically was within one year because we on traveled on 20 miles of new roads in Nebraska during our Christmas break.

Here is Wyoming. We have traveled on almost every road that crosses the state. We have a few more to travel down, but very few. One of the great things about being here in Montana is traveling back to Wyoming or Nebraska - we can usually find a new road to travel down and see some new countryside.

Here's the Missoula area - as you can see we don't get out of town much. The one thing about living in the mountains is you are really limited to 'escape' routes out of town. You can only to South on the major road, or hit the Interstate and head East or West.. You can go North if you go West for a few miles - that's how you get to Glacier National Park. The big difference is the back roads - there arn't many back roads here - atleast compared to Nebraska. That is perhaps one of the biggest changes and problems for us here - we have to travel down major roads to get anywhere. So as you can see, we have gone South a little, and to Idaho via the Lolo Pass - where Lewis and Clark went 200 years ago.

In the past few years, I have really become a highway traveler. I like the slow pace and easy going feeling you get. The Interstate tends to be a fast paced, unhappy, mass of drivers that just want to get there, and don't want to see anything along the way. When we moved we took Highway 30 from Kearney to Cheyenne - I had never been down the highway the entire way to Cheyenne and I really liked the drive. Even though it took a lot longer than buzzing down the interstate, it was a lot more fun to see small towns and the scenery along the way. Sometimes you just have to slow down and see what you have been missing to really understand where you have been. Until again

-=Nolan=-

Follow The eTrex

Laura and I did some geocaching yesterday afternoon. The weather wasn't nearly as nice as the day before, but seldom does the weather stop us from geocaching. We found two caches which were rather close to our house but they were located in a tricky area to get to. We had a lot of fun being out and geocaching together, one of the best things about geocaching is we get to find new areas of town which we wouldn't normally go to.

The GPS we use is the Garmin eTrex. It is about as simple as personal GPS devices go. Most people choose not to use this particular GPS - basically because it has no map built in for navigation. However, as far as base maps go, I wouldn't use them anyway - for the most part I reference the atlas every time we are traveling.

Perhaps I will tell everyone about our atlas tomorrow. My power supply is on its way back to Missoula from Walnut, California. I sent the power supply back last Thursday, and yesterday the company e-mailed me and informed me of the shipping number and that the package had been sent. I have been very impressed with the communication the company has kept with me and I would definatly do business with them again. I just may when I build my new computer within the next few years. Until again

-=Nolan=-

I Will Point Out The Idiots For You

I usually don't post twice in one day, but today I found this blog and had to throw the idot flag for idiocy in the first degree. I have edited it for those who have manners - anything I add or edit is in orange. I also have the link to the original post if you want to see the comments and whatnot.

Original Penny Rant

Friday, February 03, 2006

Pennies

Are we done with the EDIT pennies yet?

Because it is time. The American public hasn’t been using them for about a decade. I do. They have become so worthless, that people give them to each other as a matter of routine. Get your change, pick out the pennies, and leave them there for the next guy. Need a penny or two? Well, there should be a few there for you, because the last guy sure as EDIT didn’t want his. That’s the game.

I hate when stores don’t want to play by the game. If a store doesn’t have a little tray, I am immediately annoyed. You need to settle down. The hellO if I’m fishing another dollar out of my pants because it came to $5.02. Ever heard of carrying your own change? When that cash register rings up $5.02 and you look at me, we’re fixing to have a long staredown. I’ll return an item before I break another dollar and let you give me three more of the EDIT things in return. And that item probably had a profit margin of at least $.03 to you, so who’s the loser now? Get it? As long as they’re still around, you better play by the game. Oh brother.

When there is no tray, my normal routine has become to fish through my change and immediately pick them out and deposit them into the trash. Not only are they worthless to idiots, but they are disgusting, and I’m not carrying them around. You should think about all the stuff on your other money idiot. Most have been in circulation for 20 years, and as the stepchild of your change purse, they have been given no love. Are you saying MOST of the pennies in circulation were minted in 1986? They live in ashtrays, parking lots, and huge jars owned by 72 year old men who remember when they were worth something. Or in MY found money jar, which is approaching $50.00 after 13 months. Old copper is gross enough to start with. Add to the fact that they are covered in gum and EDIT and filth, and you need to wash your hands every time one touches you. You should wash out that filthy mouth while your at it.

Think about this: a stamp costs $0.37. 37 pennies weigh 6 ounces. First off, after a colon it is only proper to allow for two spaces. Second a stamp costs $0.39 when you published this. Third, 1 penny weights 2.35 grams - so with some simple math 37 pennies weigh 3.1 ounces. I think you are twice as wrong now. It takes about two stamps to mail 6 ounces of stuff. Therefore, if I wanted to mail someone 37 cents in pennies, it would cost me 74 cents. By my definition, it’s pretty clear cut. Your definition is void due to terrible math skills and not being able to stay with current events, such as the stamp being $0.39 now. When a monetary unit can’t afford to mail itself, it’s worthless. So are you saying everything except for the $0.50 piece is unworthy? Don’t get all cocky either, nickels…….you aren’t far behind. (I don’t really know how much 37 pennies weigh, that was just a guess. I have a scale in my office, and would find out, but I can’t. I threw out all my EDIT pennies. Just trust me though….I’m right on this general principal. I know by instinct that they can’t mail themselves.) Yet you don't know the general price of a current United States stamp. Yeah right, I trust you.

Vending machines won’t even take them. They hired engineers to assure that any penny which entered the slot would be immediately routed straight to the change opening. Think about the engineering involved. Dimes, which are smaller than pennies, go right into the till, but they had to create some sort of mechanism that would sort out and eliminate any penny that enters the machine, lest they get involved with the REAL money that is in there, and gross it all up. Do you know this to be fact or are you still using that 'trust me' concept?

Have you ever tried to give one to a bum? Seriously. No, but I have given them food. I almost got in a fight in San Francisco over the fact that I gave a bum some pennies. The man had no home, was hungry, cold, (cold in San Fran? You better come to Montana) and hopeless, yet when I gave him a handful of pennies, he tried to spit on me. Fortunately, his lack of front teeth seriously affected his aiming abilities and I easily dodged the saliva-based projectile, but nonetheless. Ok, that's kind of funny to picture, but your next point is gonna blow people out of the water...

Isn’t this enough evidence for Alan Greenspan and the Fed to say enough is enough? UH, evidently you didn't get the memo on that current event either. Alan Greenspan retired on Feb. 1, 2006. Two days before you published this. I now summarize my case:

1. Pennies are considered worthless, even by homeless people (If you are an idiot)
2. Pennies are disgusting (As is all money, so lets just destory all of it?)
3. Pennies can’t even mail themselves (Don't send cash in the mail, it has been requested by the Post Office to send check)
4. Americans are actually giving them to strangers, like some nationwide game of hot potato (You can give them all to me, I will put them to good use)
5. Vending machines are even too smart to take them. Their job is to take money, not pennies. (I ask to check your references)

Case Closed but not really. Please, Federal Reserve, I beg you. End the game.

I’m done with the EDIT pennies.

Sully

Dear Sully,
You can stop throwing your pennies away, which is a federal crime but I am sure you didn't know that after finding out you didn't know about the stamps or Alan Greenspan. You can send your pennies to me. I would suggest you send them in a box with the approximate weight of five pounds. Lets DO the math on this one. By Google Search we see that a penny weights 2.35 grams there are 28 grams in one ounce and 16 ounces in 1 pound. Therefore (28/2.35)*16*5=953. That would be $9.35 of pennies in a 5 pound box. However, take into consideration the type of box used and the weight of it... Thus, depending on the distance you are sending the package, you can actually send a package of pennies and make a profit. Also remember that there are two (2) spaces after any punctuation ending your sentece. I feel like a 7th grade English teacher after reading that.

Yours truely.

-=Nolan=-

Watching Television To See Commercials

You know that the Super Bowl isn't very good, when you only run back into the room when you hear a commercial start. In case you were in a coma or in outerspace then you probably caught, atleast some, of the commercials last night. I would have to say there were a few commercials which caught the funny bone and gave it a tickle, but for the most part I was thinking that things would pick up. With only 6 minutes left in the 4th quarter I soon realized that things were not going to pan out and become the super bowl or commercial extravaganza I was hoping for... If you did happen to miss commercials last night or you want to see a commercial again, you can get it >>HERE<<. Until again

-=Nolan=-

You Learn Something Every Day

I was browsing the internet today and I ran across a rather famous picture. Most of you will recognize it. This picture was taken near Missoula, Montana in 2000. I had no idea... I don't rightly know the location of the picture, but everything I have found says it was taken in the Bitterroot Valley or Bitterroot National Forest - the area south of Missoula. Just thought I would share this interesting bit of information with my fans!

Until again

-=Nolan=-

Happy Groundhogs Day!

Well, according to Punxsutawney Phil we are in for another six weeks of winter. What winter? Average temperatures here in Missoula have been above average for nearly 45 days now and that's a lot when you get down to numbers and climates. I don't understand how a groundhog seeing a shadow can predict much, but then again Phil tends to have better prediction skills than some meteorologists and he doesn't have much training.

Oh well, Happy Groundhogs Day! Until again

-=Nolan=-