Flipping burgers?

The latest employment numbers indicate that only 36,000 non-farm jobs were lost in February. So, the unemployment rate essentially stayed the same at 9.7%. But many are coming to the end of their benefits. The underemployed and those who have given up pushes the rate to 17%. During the great Depression, the rate was 25% - one out of 4 Americans were out of work. There is an upside though. First and most important is the increased time that can be spent on personal relationships. As my presence on the Internets indicate, I have lots of time. Another benefit is the lack of time constraints. No time clock. I have read many books, one of my favorite pastimes. All this time has provided opportunities to become involved in the local music scene. And given me incentive to pick up the guitar a little more often. Although a honorable job, flipping burgers isn't in the stars.
MSNBC: Jobs data show signs of a turning point

Seppi Hall

Back: Shari Perkins, Andrew D'Sylva, Eli Winterburn
Front: Royd Seppi, Ben Bolos, Tracy Hall

Influences:
The Guess Who, Uriah Heap, Jefferson Airplane, Golden Earing, Tom Petty, Neil Young, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, Youngbloods, Buffalo Springfield, and many more too numerous to name.

Biography:
Seppi Hall formed under a different name in 2000 by Royd, Tracy and Shari, introduced by a mutual bassist friend, Matt. We began as, and still are, a three-part harmony classic rock cover band, with a few originals thrown in for good measure. We changed the name a couple years ago to avoid confusion with another band of the same name.

On Reverbnation

On Flicker

Facebook

Myspace

On Picasa

Seppi Hall website

photo by David Schweitzer

Sand Grains

"We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here."
—Richard Dawkins

Bill Gates and his contribution to the evolution of man...

I've been following Bill Gates for many years now. I bought the first version of Microsoft Flight Simulator v3 that ran on MSDOS v3.3 in 1988. Over the years I came to learn a lot about computers and software because he had the foresight and wisdom to keep the knowledge of it's productive use in as many hands as possible. Capitalism at it's best. Thanks Bill... by the way, got a spare million?
Welcome to the Gates Notes
Bill Gates Twitter feed

Happy New Year

Can you believe another year has come and gone? Yeah, me neither. If I can't find work and the unemployment money runs out I may end up in Montana living in a cabin writing my manifesto. Although I own guns and covet the 2nd amendment, I am a pacifist at heart, so don't worry. I once lived in Great Falls, Montana in the early 60's and grew to love the big skys. As a family we would spend vacations in a hunter's cabin with friends of my father's. The cabin was in the mountains east of Lewistown. The dads would hunt deer. The kids would hunt blackbirds with homemade slingshots. We explored the woods and played in amongst the red rock sandstone boulders and cliffs. We would also play in a barn and hide in the hay. Avoiding skunks, porcupines and rattlesnakes was always on our minds. At night we'd snack on jerky, drink pop and the adults drank and played poker in front of a roaring fire. I became very good at Go Fish, but was lousy at War.

So, moving to Montana would definitely be within my sphere of possibilities.

Or... moving back to Hawaii!

Happy New Year everybody.

4 Lakewood, Washington Police Officers Killed

Police officers Mark Renninger, Ronald Owens, Tina Griswald, and Greg Richards were killed Sunday morning in a senseless shooting in Lakewood, WA. The four officers were all veterans, with kids, families. Just horrific. Our entire state is traumatized. Please keep their families and friends in your thoughts.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34194122/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope you have a great Thanksgiving!