This here blog is 5 today. Happy Birthday to Paint A Vulgar Picture! Every July 31st I am amazed that I am still writing this.

Major changes over here. It all started with me being tired and really fucking up some code without saving my pre-change code. Make sense? This means I also lost a bunch of my stuff so I'm in the process of learning how to modify the new template and making changes so be patient.

Oddly enough the accidental redesign comes the day before the 5 year anniversary of the site. 5 years of pure fucking joy.

Charleston was wonderful. What a cool town. The inn was nice and the ghost tours were a lot of fun. The aquarium was nice as well. We checked out a great imax movie called The Deep Sea narrated by Johnny Depp and Kate Winslett. It had a very cool pro-conservation/anti-fishing (large-scale fishing of course) message. Had some strange experiences in both the jail and the dungeon. Took a bunch of pics and caught a few 'orbs.' These are balls of light thought by many to be a spirit manifesting itself on camera. Some really pronounced 'cold spots' in the dungeon despite the 100 degree heat. Also in the dungeon large chains moving by themselves and strange movement out of the corner of my eye. Very exhilirating.

At this point I've had more than a couple encounters that I believe to be of the ghostly variety and gone is the fear-now it's just exiting and interesting. I know somebody reading this is probably thinking 'bullshit' and that's fine by me. The only problem I have is when the same person believes that the son of god was placed on Earth in human form, was killed, then rose again, and then ascended into the sky and still thinks believing in ghosts is ridiculous. After all Jesus did perform exorcisms, which involved evil 'spirits' (aka ghosts). All-in-all definitely worth the trip. Can't wait to go back.

It has been suggested that the reason the term "redneck" came about was because a certain demographic tended to work outside and get sunburned, therefore they had red necks. I have also heard that the name originates from these same individuals receiving a sunburn through the rear window of their pick-up trucks. What am I getting at, you ask? I'm having the rear window of my truck tinted next Monday. I've been meaning to do this since I bought the thing 2 years ago. I'm a mover and a shaker. I actually have to take my truck out to Lynchburg for the tint job. Nobody in town does tint work.

I gotta say that one thing about teaching that really pisses me off is having to use my own money to buy supplies for the students. I just went out and spent $9 on writing utensils for the kids. How come nobody goes to school prepared anymore? No notebook, no pencil, in some cases no brain. I know someone out there is thinking: "but you teach in a poor district...they might not have the money for pencils or notebooks." In a few caes this is true, but in most cases it's just an example of misplaced priorities. $150 sneakers. $200 throwback jerseys. A new hairstyle every week. I know $9 is nothing in the grand scheme of things, but it's the principle of the matter. I remeber one time in high school I lost all of my pens and I almost started crying because my teachers got so pissed off if you had to ask for a pen. How times have changed. Now the kids bitch at me if they want a blue pen and I only have a black one.

In completely unrelated news, Kim and I are going to Charleston, SC in a few weeks and it is gonna f*ckin' rock. Here's why:

We're staying in a haunted Bed and Breakfast.

Going on a Charleston Ghost & Dungeon Walking Tour.

Going on a Haunted Jail Tour.

and if that wasn't enough...

Going to the South Carolina Aquarium.