I received a version of this in email today; I edited it slightly.

Like a lot of folks in this country, I have a job. I work and my employer pays me. I pay my taxes and the government distributes my taxes as it sees fit. In order to get that paycheck, I am required to pass a random urine test with which I have no problem.

What I do have a problem with is the distribution of my taxes to people who don't have to pass a urine test. Shouldn't one have to pass a urine test to get a welfare check? I have to pass one to earn it for them?

Please understand; I have no problem with helping people get back on their feet. I do, on the other hand, have a problem with helping someone sitting on their ASS, doing drugs, while I work…

Can you imagine how much money the state and the federal government would save if people had to pass a urine test to get a public assistance check?

Now, let me just say I totally agree but I don’t think it goes far enough. I think that if someone is on public assistance they should also be required to be on birth control. There is no reason that we the working should be paying the non-working to have more kids for us to pay more for.

Something has to change in this country -- and soon!

No you can't do your job!

Ok, so have you ever worked for someone that just would not let you do your job to the fullest? They are always slowing you down or just plain don’t think you know what you are talking about.

“Wow! Press Releases are a great idea. Can we put these out once a week?” So said my boss as I presented him with some newly written PR to be distributed to local media. “Let me look these over an I will get back to you with them.” That was almost 2 years ago. I asked almost every other day if he had “looked them over”, his assistant created a special folder for them and inquired weekly on there status. A year latter I thought I’d try again.

“Wow! I didn’t know you knew how to do Press Releases. Can we do these often?” I just smiled and answered his questions. “Why haven’t we done these before?” To which I got up, went to his desk and retrieved the folder handed it to him open to the first set. “Oh, when were these put in here? I wish I had known they were here. Let me look these over an I will get back to you with them.” They still sit on his desk…

About six month ago I put together an article on how our company has been doing the things that all the others are now claiming makes them “Green”, for most of the life of the company. It was primed to get released just before the big “We’re Green” ads started everywhere. He had to review it. Still hasn’t.

These are just two examples, I could go on, page after page. Am I bitter? No not really, just confused. Why put someone in charge of marketing and advertising then not let him or her do his or her job? It just makes no since to me.

Lets start with an introduction and see where this goes from there.

My name is Shell and this is my blog, visual playground, testing ground, soapbox or whatever. This blog will showcases some of the work that I have created in digital media and my thoughts on the world around me. I've tried blogging before but never stick to it so hopefully this time I will be better at it.

I was born an Army brat, the fifth child of seven in La Mesa California in 1968. My father was in the Military so we moved a lot up and down the west coast. My childhood is much to boring to go into except to say it had it's ups and downs.

In 1983 I started working with graphics and hardcopy printing in high school and within 2 years I was supervising a print shop that functioned as the printers for all the nonprofit organizations in a tri-city area. Raised the shops production to such a high level we were able to purchase much needed new equipment, which again increased output. Was awarded the Kiwanis Printer of the Year Award and took Second place in the Vocational Industrial Clubs of America (VICA) statewide printing competition.

I went on to teach a high school graphics and photography class three periods a day for two years. This class included typesetting, graphics design, layout/paste-up, plate making, printing and the black and white photography.

I’ve taken numerous courses in programming and multimedia, attended Devry, and was accepted to an art school; but most of the things I have learned are self-taught through online tutorials off the Internet and constant self-study. I am a flexible artist, whether you are talking the graphical and visual or the behind the scenes code that makes it all work. I can render any kind of approach to design - minimal to maximal, bright to dark, clean to grungy... and then translate my designs into HTML, XHTML, CSS, PHP, PERL, MYSQL or whatever it takes to make a design work, hand-coding it or not.

Graphic Design is what I love, from doodling to high-end art for sale in art shows. I also develop websites, from straight forward to flashy, to making people say “wow!” I sit up late at night designing web templates or digital art, just to get it out of my head. Graphic Design is my passion. While most people work with computers, computers work for me, they always have. I have had clients ask for cardboard stand-ups of me because “as long as you're in the room everything works.” I’ve done everything from teaching high school to managing a store in a mall to serving in the army for 7 years with top-secret security clearance while working military intelligence.

Well that’s me in a nutshell.