Prop 83: A Year Later

The Santa Rosa Press- Democrat takes a look at Prop 83 this morning. Prop 83, known as Jessica's Law, was the ballot initiative that passed last year applying various restrictions to convicted sex offenders. The Press- Democrat, as did I, recommended voting against Prop 83, and they point out what they thought was a poor idea back then, was indeed a poor idea.

I'm curious as to whether those of you that voted for Prop 83 might have voted differently if you knew what you knew today?

Ok, no surprised there. I didn't think so.

Sheriff Gene Cox

For some reason I've been thinking about the killing of Sheriff Gene Cox off and on lately. Still, for some reason it surprised me to read that it happened 25 years ago. Do you remember where you were when you heard about it? I'm not sure where I was but know I was working at the Humboldt Bay Power Plant at the time.

For those of you newbies to Humboldt County, the Ebb Tide Trailer Park, where the shootings occurred, is where the new Harley Davidson store is now: North side of Eureka alongside the Eureka Slough over at the Humboldt Bank(?) Mall. There used to be a trailer park there.

Looks like Coroner, Frank Jager, found the rifle used in the shooting and is donating it to the Clark Museum. I'll have to remember to go see it once it's on display. Kind of creepy, though.

Another Mendo Biggie Busted For Pot

Seems like marijuana is everywhere in Mendocino County. About a week and a half ago an employee of the Mendocino County District Attorney's Office was found in possession of a large amount of pot.

Now it turns out Mendocino activist, and daughter of a former congresscritter, Laura Hamburg, is being charged with possession of marijuana for sales. The property the stash was found on belonged to her father, Dan Hamburg.

To add an interesting twist to the October incident, Laura Hamburg called Keith Faulder, former prosecutor and past candidate for district attorney, to the scene. I would suppose that would have been for legal advice?

I can't help but wonder if all these well known government employees and politicos getting involved in the pot business is giving pot a bad reputation.

A Kucinich/ Paul Ticket?

I didn't suggest it. Kucinich did. Quite frankly, I think Kucinich has less of a chance of winning the Democrat nomination than Ron Paul has of winning the Republican one. Still, interesting idea.

Hat tip to Austin Cassidy's Third Party Watch blog for the heads up.

Having a Pet Aircraft Carrier

Some of you might remember the efforts made a while back to bring the old aircraft carrier Midway(?) to Humboldt Bay. It was proposed as both a tourist attraction and as a place for businesses and maybe even conventions.

I was skeptical, although the idea was a bit intriguing. I found it hard to believe people would come all the way to Eureka just to see an old aircraft carrier. There were a number of people that really believed in it, though. Regardless, that idea just seemed to go by the wayside, for better or worse.

Can't really say it would have been for better, even after reading a story in today's Times- Standard on the fate of the carrier Hornet. Unfortunately, I can't find the story online but it is available through the T-S' e- edition.

That carrier was finally berthed at Alameda and has been used as a museum of sorts for some time. Apparently, despite some 50,000 visitors per year, the carrier can't make ends meet and hasn't even paid its rent for four years.

As part of the Hornet's reorganization, they hired a Chief Executive Officer. One of the things he wants to do is move the ship over to San Francisco where there's "other historic ships and a tourist base.".

I don't know that we're talking apples vs. oranges here, in regards to having an old carrier berthed in Eureka as opposed to Alameda. They might not be exactly the same thing, but they're pretty close, I would think. If some place like Alameda can't get something like the Hornet to be worth its while, it seems a stretch to think Humboldt Bay could.

Indulge Me

Not sure just how much these Meet Up groups mean, but this was fun.

Mendocino To Mull Pot Issues

Wow. The Ukiah Daily Journal's, K.C. Meadows, gives us a heads up on upcoming city and county activity in Mendocino County regarding marijuana being grown there. Among other things, the Ukiah City Council is considering outlawing the growing of Marijuana outside. No mention of indoor grows which seem to be the problem in Humboldt. It seems the outdoor grows have caused enough headaches by themselves.

If you're reading this late, it's the November 23rd post on her blog.

Democrats: The Party of the Rich?

At least according to this article in the Washington Post. Who'd a thunk it?

Anons Now Allowed To Comment

As I mentioned in a comment below, I didn't realize I'd set comments up for registered users only back when I went to comment moderation. I knew comments had dropped off but hadn't noticed there's been no anonymous comments for some time.

Taking a look at the admin page for comments, I see I did, indeed, allow only registered users to comment. For the life of me, I don't remember doing that. I just remember enabling moderation.

Anyway, against my better judgment, I've set it now so anons can make comments. Comments are still moderated, though. I say against my better judgment if only because I kind of like the way it's been so peaceful and quiet around here lately.

The Real T- Day Story

I'm breaking tradition today. I'll usually go out of my way not to mention traditional holidays on this blog, at least not in a favorable light. Today will be different.

I saw this story about the origins of Thanksgiving all over the web the last couple years, in slightly different versions from a variety of different sources . Only saw it one place this time so thought maybe I should help spread it around.

Hat tip to the Right On blog for the link.

Scheer Likes Paul?

Looks like yet another fairly hard- core lefty has come around to liking at least something about Republican presidential hopeful, Ron Paul. At least I think Robert Scheer is pretty hard left from other things I've read by him.

This commentary posted on lewrockwell.com might be what Scheer was referring to in his comments.

Go, Ron Paul! I think it's really something how this past Libertarian Party presidential candidate has raised so much interest from all sides of the political spectrum.

******

Update: The link that Splash tried to post in the comments goes here. His link ended up truncated.

Yep. Paul is getting hit by statists from the Left and Right. That's one thing I like about him and I guess I'm one of the few people that won't dismiss a candidate simply because some fringe groups also support him. It all depends on what where the candidate stands on the issues.

Jonah Goldberg, from the Right, addresses that issue here- defending Paul. He considers Huckabee to be the Republican's scariest candidate.

Humboldt Frost

Looks like the first decent frost of the season, at least for the center of Eureka. I thought we might have had a good one a couple days ago from the feel of it. I can usually tell if it's frosty outside just from how it feels inside the house. Was only a spotty frost the other day, though.

The main way I tell if it's frosty, for sure, is looking out the front window of the house at my truck. Frost shows up well, even in the dark, on my truck. If I don't see frost on the truck, then I have to wait until daybreak so I can look at the roofs of neighboring houses. There's one house just a couple spaces to the northeast behind ours that will have frost on it even if no one else's does.

I believe that house is Jaime's house. She was a local maintenance gardener for a while. For some reason her roof will be the first [and last] one to hold frost on it. That's usually the first place to look if my truck doesn't show any.

Like I said, I can usually get an idea if it's cold enough for frost just by how it feels inside the house. One thing I check is my pillow. When I'm laying in bed, even though I might not feel that cold, I can sense the air is cold. I reach over and touch the pillow next to my head. If it feels noticeably cold, it's cold and likely frosty.

Funny thing about frosty mornings, though, is I seem to feel warmer than some non- frosty mornings. I've been trying to figure out for years why that is. I'd like to think it's because it's not as damp. I've theorized for some time that most of the moisture in the air freezes and turns to frost and, since it's not so damp with water taken out of the air, I feel warmer.

That makes sense to me, except I'm not sure it's true because checking the humidity shows the air being more humid than on some foggy, damp days. I checked again this morning and, at 32 degrees, it was at 100% humidity according to weather.com.

It could be because of the way they determine humidity and maybe temperature skews the results as far as what I'm looking for. Took a meteorology class at C/R years ago and we learned a bit about that but I don't remember anything in regards temperature vs. humidity. I'm sure there's something going on along that line, though, otherwise how could I feel so much warmer even though the humidity is so high.

Oh well, plenty of time to think about that. One thing I like about frost is it gives me an excuse to take my time getting going in the morning. After all, can't mow frosted lawns.

I love having an excuse.

Ron Paul Supporters Have Humboldt Home

Just a heads up for supporters of Ron Paul in his quest for the Republican nomination for president: If you want to meet with like minded people and perhaps get active locally for Ron Paul, there's been a Ron Paul Meetup Group made for people in Eureka and neighboring areas.

Seems to me I saw one note where someone wanted some people to help start a group in the Garberville area and I might of seen one for Arcata, or some such. Joining the group doesn't cost a thing.

Humboldt Bay Strategic Plan Out

Looks like everyone on the Harbor Commission agreed with a strategic plan for the future of Humboldt Bay. No details really available in the Times- Standard report. Details of the plan are available on the Harbor Commission's web site.

Don't really have time to look at it right now. No biggie. I suspect it's likely one of those generic vision things that doesn't mean all that much in and of itself.

I found the one comment by environmental advocate, Mel Mckinney, interesting:

"..the recent election that ousted one longtime commissioner and threatened another's seat showed that people are tired of nothing getting done.".

So, the voters canned a long time incumbent because he wanted to do something but hadn't accomplished anything, and replaced him with someone who didn't want to do anything with the bay (at least as far as industry goes). Hmm..???

*********

In case any of you subscribers to the Times- Standard didn't notice, they're giving hard copy subscribers of their paper a free 60 day trial subscription to their e- edition. Look for the flyer in today's paper for details.

One thing I like about the e- edition is I can get hold of pictures that aren't normally included in their web page news, like the one of my niece, Alyssa Rasmussen, on page 3 of today's paper. I stole that picture to post here but it keeps showing up at the top of this post. Anyone know how to make the picture show up at the bottom of a post?
There. That should work. Thanks, Rose.

A Tragic Trolling Tale

Sandy, over at the Junkfood Science blog, tells us a rather tragic tale of some internet trolling gone horribly wrong (or did it?). I guess we should be surprised that adults can do such things but, after some of the commentary I've seen in the blogosphere, I'm not.

What a difference...

..it makes when you change the person in charge of an editorial page.

Unlike Heraldo, I don't think the Eureka Reporter has always skewed their news stories to parrot the Arkley line. But the first editorial that came out after the Reporter hired that Hannaford guy to take over their editorial page did raise my eyebrows since it was a 180 from the Reporter's prior editorials about Iraq.

Now we see it again with another glowing report on Iraq in the Reporter's editorial column. Looks like this might be a prominent, if not permanent, change in what we read in the Eureka Reporter from now on. I can't help but wonder if Hannaford was hired for one reason only: To send the right message in the Reporter's editorials. I've discounted others that have accused the Reporter of bias before, but this might be the real thing.

Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that. After all, we're just talking editorials here. Everybody's entitled to an opinion.

Fortuna High Does Paintball?

I've got to give Fortuna credit. How many other communities, or school districts, would allow themselves to be connected to something as politically incorrect as paintball? From all the horror stories you hear about schools banning this, that, or some other thing, you'd think school officials wouldn't want to have their names attached to any sport that involved a gun of any kind.

Give it time. Sooner or later someone will be complaining about Fortuna High School having a paintball team.

Fred Switches(?) Sides, Joins Barnum

In the Timber Production Zone debate, anyway.

Actually, I don't know that I actually switched sides. I just didn't feel all that opposed to the Board of Supes' supposed "temporary" ordinance restricting home building in Timber Production Zones.

I'm sure that came from the same knee- jerk reaction a lot of people had when hearing of Palco's plan to convert a bunch of timberland to development. I envisioned acres and acres of trees being replaced with tract housing. That wasn't the plan.

Regardless of what Palco's plan was, the ordinance did serve some purpose with the bankruptcy judge actually taking note of what our supes had done.

But one concern I had did come to pass in that the supes began talking of extending the emergency ordinance. Some elements in Humboldt seem to want that ordnance to become part of Humboldt's general plan, if I understand them correctly. That was my concern: Once this gets started, it might well become permanent.

Over at Heraldo's blog, some are pretty up front about their feelings that they don't seem to think people should have any control at all over their property. One commentor- sarcastically, I think- says opponents of the more restrictive TPZ ordinance want, to paraphrase, "to do whatever we want with our land...".

Clear cutting 160 acres and covering that land with tract housing might be considered "doing whatever we want...", or at least what some people might want. That's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about maybe having one house on 160, or some such, acres. That's not a big development and that's not necessarily a given either, as I would think they'd still have to go through all the Planning Department obstacles to build even that one house.

Yep, I'm with Barnum and the others on this one, I think. I'm also with this guy. Bill, next time they run one of those ads, feel free to add my name to the list, but check with me first. You never know if I might change my mind again.

Car Thief at Large (in my neighborhood?)

Maybe I should of called the cops after all? I think I might have seen this guy. Neither the Eureka Reporter or Times- Standard chose to include the guy's picture on their web sites as they did in their hard copies, but I think that guy was stalking my neighborhood. I think it was last Saturday, although I'm not sure. It was a real cloudy day, regardless, and pretty dark outside.

So I'm in my garage hanging out around 3pm'ish, maybe 4. This guy comes walking down the sidewalk on my side of the street. As he passes by my truck he slows just a little and it looks like he's trying to see inside my truck, without looking like he is. Then he walks by the wife's car and seems to do the same.

I can't say for sure that he was doing it but for some reason he really got my attention. The guy was white, maybe six foot tall- more or less- blue jeans and a blue/ black pendleton type shirt wrapped around his waist. He had a dark overgarment with a gray hooded sweatshirt underneath. I could tell because the gray hood was sticking out the top of the overgarment. He had a white baseball type hat and, oddly enough on such a dark and cloudy day, he was wearing sunglasses.

I thought the guy was scoping out our cars to either steal them, or something in them. But hopefully it's over now, as the guy moved on down the street. I didn't go out to see where he went and wondered if I was just imagining what I thought he was doing.

About ten minutes later, here he comes again, on the same side of the street going the same direction. He must have made a loop and came back. He kinda peeks at my truck again and then turns his head to look towards my garage. He stares in the garage for a few seconds as I'm watching him. I imagine he had a hard time seeing in the dark garage with the sunglasses on. Not sure if he could actually see me, or not, but he walks on just like he did before.

This time I go down the end of the driveway to see where he's going and he's crossing the street down by the Nazarene Church. I figure maybe he's gone for good now, having seen me watching him, but wonder if he's just doing a recon and is thinking of coming back later, after dark. After all, I live on a busy street.

About ten minutes later, here he comes again, but on the other side of the street heading south. I couldn't tell if he checked out the cars across the street at the rehab since that was out of my field of view. He walks past the Matteoli's house and turns right at the corner and makes a bee line for Mason Matteoli's car that's parked on Trinity Street across the street from his parents. I step out to watch the guy and he walks up to Mason's car and walks along side it before passing it and entering the alley just a ways behind it.

I was too far to tell if he was actually looking at Mason's car but I thought it odd that he would head towards the car rather than walk straight toward the alley he ended up disappearing down.

Maybe I'm just being paranoid? I don't know. Rather peculiar behavior and I've see literally hundreds of people walk up and down this street over the years. Few have gotten my attention like that guy. I think he was looking to steal something. I thought of calling the cops, but what would I tell them?

Luckily both the wife and Mason ended up leaving in their cars shortly thereafter, leaving mine as the only one left. Of course, I'm sure he checked out other cars in the neighborhood than just ours.

I eventually went inside and forgot about it. Next morning, after I'd been sitting at the computer a few minutes I remembered the guy from the day before and wondered if he'd stolen my truck. I was kind of afraid to look out front and check. Besides, I'm probably just being paranoid. But it kept bugging me until I couldn't get it off my mind.

After about an hour, I'd finally had enough. I went to the window and hesitated, afraid of what I might not see parked in front of my house. Finally I ripped the curtains aside. There sat my truck. Whew! Close one. Had me worried.

I still think that guy was scouting out cars to steal or steal from and it very well could have been that guy in the picture in today's papers.

Murray on the Railroad Dream

I'll stand aside on the issue of replacing the rail line between Arcata and Eureka with a bike trail, but I thought John Murray had a pretty hard- hitting commentary in the Eureka Reporter this morning regarding the return of rail to Humboldt. Wish I'd written that.

Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Indulge me. Had the song on my mind and did a search and found it. Never had seen Gordon Lightfoot before, outside of the album cover I had. That pic was of a much younger guy with a beard. But that was yesterday, and yesterday's gone:

Enough is Enough with this Ethanol Thing

Why we insist on beating ourselves over the head with this ethanol thing is beyond me. Not only is it screwing up food prices, now it looks like the price of beer might go up as more hops and barley growers switch to corn.

Enough is enough! Save the corn for eating.

Presidential Candidates On Pot

If you're a single issue voter, and marijuana is your issue, this might be of interest to you:

I received another note from the Marijuana Policy Project yesterday that led me to this link where the presidential candidates from the two major parties are graded in regards their positions on medical marijuana.

Keep in mind that page just deals with the medical marijuana question, although I suppose you can take it one step further and say, if a candidate opposes medical marijuana, they most likely oppose decriminalization of marijuana.

Decriminalization was actually the issue of the e-mail I received from MPP. They made mention of the fact that, during a democratic presidential candidate debate, Senator Chris Dodd proposed decriminalizing marijuana- a bit of a surprise to me. When the other candidates were asked to raise their hands if they agreed with Dodd, only one did: Dennis Kucinich.

You can see a YouTube video of that exchange here, although I thought the picture was a bit fuzzy to tell just who raised their hands and who didn't. The MPP letter went on to say that former U.S. Senator Mike Gravel would legalize marijuana but he was excluded from the debate.

Bottom line, as MPP sees it, is if your issue is marijuana, you only have a few choices come the 2008 republican and democratic primaries:

Democrats Christopher Dodd, Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel and Bill Richardson, or, Republicans Ron Paul or Tom Tancredo. Unfortunately for pot issue folks, none are likely to receive their party's nomination.

Eureka Getting Serious About Stored Cars?

I'm curious what "stepped up enforcement" refers to when referring to Eureka's vehicle abatement program? So far, from my own personal experience, they handle it pretty well. While vehicles aren't supposed to be parked anywhere for over 72 hours, I've gotten the impression they let it go if they know the car is alongside the owner's property, isn't an eyesore and actually goes somewhere every now and then.

I had the vehicle abatement guy stop by my house after my trailer got wrecked and I had the trailer parked on the Trinity Street side of the house for a few weeks awaiting disposal. The guy, whose name escapes me now (but it's not the one listed in the E/R article), just asked if the trailer belonged to me. I told him it did and he left after telling me the city would actually haul it off for free if I'd like. I got rid of it on my own.

*******

Storing vehicles on the streets is one of my pet peeves. That's one reason I took my old Ford Ranger pick- up to the auto wreckers right after I bought the truck I drive now. I was thinking I didn't really have to get rid of it. Nothing wrong with having two trucks, except I would have to pay for the extra insurance.

But the main reason I got rid of it quick is I knew if I parked it on the side of the house it would likely end up just sitting there and slowly deteriorate as we so often see with permanently parked cars. I wouldn't want someone else doing that and so I shouldn't do that myself. I drove it down the auto wreckers on Jacob's Avenue in Eureka. Luckily, they took the truck without charging me.

*********

Some people don't do that, though. I got on the late Tish Wilburn's bad side a while back when she was running for city council. I told her she needed to do something about her old junk car that seemed to be permanently parked at one place or another on her street. She wouldn't want someone bringing that up when she's campaigning.

She got a bit irked with me and explained that it wasn't her car anymore. She'd given it to some guy who, according to her, owned something like 30 other cars others had given him and he had them parked all over town.

Now why the hell would someone go around parking cars all over the place just to own them? To add insult to injury, the guy finally seemed to settle on parking Tish's old car out in front of some apartments I did work at. Parking was tough enough there as it was. With Tish's car parked there semi- permanently, one less parking space was available.

I resigned myself to turn the car in to vehicle abatement. I wrote down the license number and details and, as so often happens, dropped the ball.

I did notice that the car's registration expired the next month and figured if I came back after the license expired and he hadn't renewed it, it would be even easier to have it hauled off. Unfortunately, when I returned in August the guy had actually renewed the registration although the car hadn't been moved in maybe six months.

Shortly thereafter, I happened to see the vehicle abatement guy driving around not far from Tish's old house and the junk car. After a few blocks I got his attention and he stopped. I told him the situation and he said, regardless of the registration status, the vehicle could be hauled if parked for more than 72 hours.

He said he'd go check it out. The next time I went back to those apartments the car was gone. Haven't seen it since. Wonder if it got towed?

*******

The next door neighbor (well... across the street neighbor), Jenny, was concerned about the car parked next to my house near the corner, on Trinity Street. I explained to her that it belonged to one of the guys staying at the half- way house across the street, but I had no idea why he'd parked it there. That seemed to alleviate her concerns for the time being.

It's been sitting there for weeks now and I haven't seen the guy. I'm wondering if he moved and left his car here? Probably have to have vehicle abatement check that one out one of these days if they don't find it on their own. I actually prefer people parking on the Trinity Street side of my house than out front or across the street, but not if he's just going to leave it there.

*****

Next question: What do you do about all the abandoned vehicles in people's yards?

Pot Good For Teens?

Well, the title of the article specifies may benefit, and some teens. This comes from a study the Swiss did on the subject.

What I think fails to be recognized is that it might not be so much that marijuana actually was what created the behavior patterns but rather certain types of teens that may partake in only marijuana may just be the ones that already have such attributes (did that make any sense?). In other words, those teens that have these supposed virtues had those virtues first. I can't say for sure but maybe the marijuana came later?

Kudos to the Marijuana Policy Project for the heads up. Unlike MPP, I'm really not all that surprised to see that Fox news carried the story.

Comment Moderation In Effect

Not sure if I have it right, but comment moderation is in effect now.

I'm sure most of you realize I have a major troll spamming my posts now. I don't know how else to deal with it. Feel free to make your comments, however, anything that seems to be that troll will be deleted.

Another Landslide?

Some are calling Pat Higgins' victory over Charles Ollivier a landslide (or would it be a landslide defeat?). Makes no difference, I suppose.

I can go along with that, but I was wondering about the one race that had me on the edge of my seat: The one between Jake Pickering and Sharon Omey for a seat on the Humboldt County Board of Education.

Looks like Pickering was defeated by a roughly 73 to 27 percent margin, a wider margin than any of the other one on one school district races that took place yesterday. I'd guess I'll call that a landslide, although no way of knowing what sort of thinking was behind the votes.

I'm trying to remember what percentage of the vote Pickering got last time when he ran for the Water District(?) seat. Anybody remember? I'll have to try and find the results of that race somewhere.

I'm wondering if he'll continue to run for elected office, or, do as other aspiring pols often do and try to get appointed to one the various boards or committees with open seats around the county?

What say you Jake?

No Fleas Please!

From weather.com: the flea index for Humboldt.

I don't think it's that bad. I rarely see fleas this time of year, even in the house.

Another Higher Education Moment

Since I don't have much to write today, I thought I'd post a link to this little gem by columnist, Dennis Prager. He explains that, not only is higher education not the answer to every problem, but it has helped give rise to some of history's bloodiest movements like fascism and communism.

Gooo, Prager!

Does C/R Need Renovating?

After reading the Eureka Reporter article twice, I was glad to see I'm not the only one questioning some of the demolition and renovation planned for College of the Redwoods. It looks like they're going to demolish the Administration Building, among other things. I've always felt that building was really neat looking.

I can't help but wonder if this is just renovation and rebuilding for the sake of renovation and rebuilding? After all, I'm sure there a many older buildings than C/R's in the county still being used for one purpose or another. My house was built in 1880 and it's still occupied. Does C/R really need to spend millions for new buildings?

Daylight Savings Time Again

Of course, some bad things could come out of this. Link.

Another Hillary Moment

Word from a british reporter is that the military- industrial complex seems to have broken its tradition of support for Republican candidates, at least for this upcoming election. They've given candidate Hillary more money, so far, than any of the Republican contenders for the presidential nomination.

Interesting, indeed, but I'll have to agree with one of the commentors that special interests- whether public or private- often give money to both major parties. That's their way of covering all the bases. Still, interesting that Hillary does seem to be the MIC's choice.

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San Francisco based photojournalist, Zombie, contrasts a couple presidential candidate tours in the Bay Area a little over a month ago taking a look at the Hillary and Obama rallies. Most fun part of his tour for me was scrolling down to see a photo of a brochure the Democrats for Ron Paul were passing out. Zombie is not a Ron Paul fan, from what I gather of his writings.

But, both being Hillary haters (Zombie seeming to be less of one than I) I appreciated his collection of not- so- flattering Hillary photos he put together. Keep 'em coming, Zombie!

Reason T.V. #2

Reason T.V. has its second Drew Carey clip out now. This time he's talking about medical marijuana.

If you scroll down on the Reason T.V. page, you'll see a link to a clip of Bill O'Reilly going after Reason's, Jacob Sullum, over the issue of the drug war. The few times I've watched O'Reilly I haven't had too much of a problem with him but, in this case, he comes off like some of the authoritarians that frequent this blog.

Sold!