Aaaaahhhhh..... This year's 7s Rugby Tournament is Over.
And successfully over too!

Alright, Once again I have not posted here in forever, but I have an excuse...MySpace (That evil addictive internet crack that it is)! Not that I've been blogging extensively there, but it's the best excuse I can come up with that's different from the old chestnut of doing way too many things in not nearly enough time. In any case, this one is going to be a short one as well for the same reasons. Bye Bye now. So long.

Birthday Fun and a bit 'o Rugger!
Happy Birthday to the boy. 4 goin' on 16. We had a great party at the Children's Discovery Museum in Winslow. The surprise hit gift of the evening was Ants in the Pants. We have all become veteran players over the last 72 hours.

Rugby: I think I will just post an email sent out about the game...

A big BOOOOYAAAAH  to the 13 ruggers who made the trip down to Portland last Saturday. Final score: OPSU 24 / Avalanche 7. We played two men down the entire game. Even though we were minus two players in the scrum we dominated the scrums winning all our put-ins and stealing two of theirs. We wheeled them at will. Congrats to our men of the match: Tom Springer (Full Back), Chris Munter (a.k.a. 'Super Dave') (Fly Half) and the Forward pack.

In any case I scored two of our trys and kicked the conversions as well. I'm feelin' good.

Holy Freekin' Crap, Mathman!
My son (not quite 4), of his on volition, picked up pen and paper last night and started doing sums. Not making marks and counting them, he wrote an eight and a ten and added them up and wrote an eighteen!!! A three and a one and added them and wrote a four. And so on. Cripes! OK-Granted my wife is taking math classes right now to fulfill requirements for her BA so he has some reason to be interested in numbers, but we have not spent any significant time explaining mathematical concepts or even writing numbers with McKendree. Not that I mind having a freekin' smart son. So long as when I ask him "So McKendree, what are we going to do tonight?" his answer isn't "The same thing we do every night...Try to take over the world."

Good Rugby - Interesting Improv - Great Swim Meet...
Had a busy weekend - including Friday and Monday. I've been training a new artist for Sound Publishing for the last couple days. She'll be sitting in for me while I vacation (at home) next week.

Saturday
Weekend Rugby vs Budd Bay - I felt good, the team played well-ish with our normal lack of real cohesion due to (IMHO) lack of constancy in practice attendance. There were moments of brilliance and moments that make one cringe. In any case I'm looking forward to this weekend's game vs. Quake.

Saturday PM
I Raced home from the rugby game to make it to the theatre on time for an improv show. Weird show. We had to work hard early on to make a good connection with the audience, and with each other on stage. We succeeded though and by intermission our patrons were thoroughly enjoying themselves and the show was as a whole successful.

Sunday
Sunday morning I headed off to our first Challenge Meet of the swimming season. I had only 4 of my swimmers, but they all made a number of personal best times and had a great time! I got myself a new Sammy and bungy strap for my goggles as the old one was in such a state of decomposition that it was leaving sticky rubber residue on my face and in my hair. Yuck.

By the way- HAPPY BIRTHDAY GARY -

How cool is this...
email forwarded to me from the Editor of the North Kitsap Herald:
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(Katryn Quade, Poulsbo Mayoral Candidate)
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Thanks for the props Kathryn! And any of you who are checking this out, check out Kathryn Quade for Mayor website.

ALSO

The digital painting I did for Waters Edge in Port Orchard is going to be used on a Television Advertisement. Gotta say, it doesn't hurt my ego at all to have my work validated by others. Yay!

OK - The Cartooning thing has taken on elements of the ridiculous
(but cartooning is supposed to be funny, right?)
Well it has been decided that Sound Publishing employees are not allowed to cartoon for free. And, since I can't be paid for it (see blog below), I guess my only recourse is to buy advertising space...Hmmmm - part of the nice thing about being published is the idea that someone wants to see my work. Paying for space would kinda ruin that. Too bad, I have been thoroughly enjoying cartooning for the last month

So in my despondency - ya know the stupor after your dreams have been crushed - Sob, Hiccough - I've written some Haikus comparing and contrasting the merits of salaried work vs. hourly work. Prepare to be amazed
(Grit your teeth if nothing else, no one has ever claimed I was a poet)

Cheers to the days of Salaries Salaried Worker I have some good ideas I give great value Hourly Worker I have some more to offer No, you go home now	OH, For the days of Hourly Work Salaried worker Another twenty hours??? My work never ends. Hourly Worker We have to stay late? Woo-Hoo!!! Contract Overtime
Japanese music by which to set the mood Just in case you need it. In case those were just to much to bear, here is a more traditional Haiku: (doesn't mean it's better though) Springtime Peas blossoms dripping, After the morning showers, Sweet bud of new life.

Lotsa Updates...
Ok - It's been way to log since I've updated stuff.

We have -

• New Editorial Cartoons
• New Ad Examples
• New Design Examples
• Rugby Blog Update
• Motorcycling Update

Quick Cartooning Update: Going well. I've even gotten some feedback on the recent Poulsbo Mayoral Race (Quade vs. Bruce vs. Regis) and on the Bond Road cartoons.

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Today's not so deep Thoughts: Regarding New SCOTUS Nomination Harriet Miers

So it occurs to me that offering up a person for nomination that does not have the credentials or experience for the job (yet does not seem to be inherantly objectionable enough to not be confirmed) does a interresting thing that may be quite smart and not inherantly partisan.

The SCOTUS has been loosing status in the public eye for a number of years for various feats of judicial legislation that seem to cross the line of what the SCOTUS is for, or play into party politics way too much. It will weaken the SCOTUS further by having inexperienced or judges who are easy to push sitting. This will tip power further to the Executive and Legislative branch of govt. as the public views the SCOTUS with less and less credibility which is great for whomever runs the ececutive and legislative branches. Since these two branches are generally run by folks who are power hungry and play a bit fast and loose with the law anyway, I can see the appeal of this strategy.

The down side to this strategy is of course power may shift somethime in the future and the Repubs may get bitten on the a**. So my musing is probably so much bunk, however I think it's a fun idea.

Disappointed and a bit Disjointed
So, according to Sound Publishing's HR department, I can not contract for the position of cartoonist for the North Kitsap Herald. As the Herald is under the same corporate umbrella as the Port Orchard Independent (my day job), they are concerned that the Department of Labor and Industry might give them problems as I would be doing more than 40 hrs a week for the same company without overtime. Due to historical precedents of worker exploitation (Not with Sound Publishing) with dual contracting the law looks with a skeptical eye on companies who use this practice. So I can't fault them for covering their butt.

This being the case, I'm going to cartoon for free. It gives me a creative outlet, it keeps me in touch with local events and politics, and it's a great ego trip to be published.

Quick Update Updated improv blog for September 3rd Show and I've got the new cartoon up. This one is not published in the North Kitsap Herald, you'll have to wait for that one. I'm taking on the 9 cent gas tax that I wrote about Aug 24th (see below).

New Cartoons . . . I've taken a stab at caricaturing a number of the movers and shakers of the North kitsap political scene. Check 'em out. Specifically Mayor Donna Jean Bruce, Mike Regis, Katheryn Quade, and Matt Cleverley.

OK - This evening I've got a bee in my butt about:
Creationism/Intelligent Design: First of all, of course these can be, and are taught in school. They, however are taught in religious studies and philosophy classrooms (You can find them in most colleges & universities. If the folks suggesting that creationism or ID should be taught along side science are willing to put creationism/ID up to the kind of empirical testing and proof burden that are the standard of scientific theory, then by all means, in to science class with them. I somehow think they won't stand up to the scrutiny though. Science class is specifically for exploring things that can be explored via the scientific method, thus the name science. Just my thoughts, and here are a couple of other questions to ponder...

~ My thoughts on "God created man in his image" & "In six days":
Who are we, with our HUMAN perspective, to know what God's image is or how God measures time or even that his creation of Man is complete?
Do you feel complete?~

Day to day . . .

So... I don't have a lot to say just yet. Life is chugging along.

I've just managed to get an editorial cartoonist gig for the North Kitsap Herald, fall rugby is about to start, my swimmers are improving by leaps and bounds, gasoline costs too much (or not enough-I'm kind of ambivalent about it, but I'm sure the gas tax will go down in flames this November), McKendree is about to move up to the next age group in his day care, and we are still poor as church mice.