OOOOOOhhhhh, Nature!

I spent this morning at Red Rock, a national park just outside of Las Vegas, there are all sorts of hiking trails and some rock climbing places (not that I am doing that just yet) it is a neat place to get out of the city and really enjoy what God gave us! I met up with a group who hike twice a week, they gladly let me join them and actually took me to the place I wanted to go, the Tanks, where water builds up from rainfall, there are three of them on this hike, it is just so cool to see these pools of water on the top of a mountain!
I got to the park at around 8:00 in the A.M. and was getting out of my car at the trailhead at 8:20, we didn't get back to the parking lot until 1:14, so we did over 4 hours of hiking!!!
My legs are pretty much shot, so tomorrow at the gym I'll have to focus on upper body stuff... Here are some pictures to see, the rocks are all different colours!! It really is a great place to go and have fun!

We could all blog for hours on this one....

Seems the immigration issue is a hot button.... To clarify, I never said that anyone lives in a 'panacea in our nice little neighborhood ' But I bet you don't have to deal with other 'cultures' like I do, it's certainly not being shoved down your throat, that's all. as for the article you sent me, what was your point exactly?
Nice qoutes, actually... "When you come here, you come to work, not to harm anyone," said Alvaro Soto, 45, who moved to Maryland last month after spending a year in New York. He said he sends money home to his family in Guatemala." ....So taking non taxed american dollars and sending it out of the country so it can never reenter our economy... Fantastic!! That's not hurting anyone....
Gustavo Torres, executive director of CASA of Maryland, said his organization is training people to observe and take photos of the Minutemen's members. "If they keep harassing our community, we are going to demonstrate in front of their houses and in front of their workplaces to let the neighborhood know how anti-immigrant they are," he said. "It's going to be a shame for their family.".... Not really, because there is nothing illegal about the Minutemen taking pictures and they (the American citizens) have the rights of this country to show that (unless they plan to sell them for profit or to associate the images with a product or company, don't think that's going to happen)......
As for the few incidents where someone may have pointed a laser pointer, don't look in that direction..... If you weren't standing on the corner trying to get someone to hire you illegally, you wouldnt have been in the way of that laser beam.
The last thing we should do is make anything easier for those people who are breaking the law, why don't we just leave all the bank vaults open, how about that? can't blame the bank robbers that way, for that matter, bank robbers should be let go because most of the time they aren't caught breaking in, so it must not be a crime.... Anything that is bad for our SOCIETY in any way (financially or otherwise) should not be assisted further by the government, it should be regulated as law requires. Wonder what kind of national debt we would have if there wasn't so much of our money going elsewhere or if the government was getting everything they should be getting from all those who live here. ( Some of the workers here live 10 to an apartment, file married {although they are single} and take 4 or 5 deductions, so the most they are paying per check is $5.00, what kind of crap is that? ).
Anyway, this is a discussion that could take years, so lets leave it at this: We live in different places, we have different opinions, and that is one of the joys of being a legal citizen of the United States of America. I'll continue to be 'ignorant' as I'm sure that's what you think, and you can continue to be 'hearts and flowers' for that is certainly what I think.

New opportunities on the way!!

I played in the backing band for the Jewish Community Center fund raiser 'Viva Oy Vegas' this year, the theme was the '80s, so I got dressed up in appropriately gaudy attire and played some '80s tunes. The drummer, Marty, is working with a new project that includes himself, a lead guitar player and two younger guys who play and sing guitar. The project needed a bass player and Marty asked me if I'd be interested, I said yes. The group has already done an audition for one of Las Vegas' biggest agents, and are lined up to play at Harrah's Carnival court, a great outside bar/club right on the Strip!! It gets better, though, if the entertainment director is pleased, there will be week long engagements at the venue, along with the opportunity to play other venues that the agent books for (there are two main agents in Vegas, this one books for Fremont stree experience which is downtown by all the old casinos, and many strip properties). We have our song list and did our first rehearsal last night. All in all I think we will be more than ready by the May 1 and 2 gigs at Harrah's, and from there the sky is the limit!! I will have to do a lot of figuring with my schedule to see how everything is going to go, but I am really excited about this opportunity!!

Logos

Here are a few logo ideas I've worked on for the new band project, Nasty Habits, I'm trying to keep them not too risque, but still fun enough to get the point across (It is a ROCK AND ROLL band after all). I spent countless hours looking for pinups that had good outlines, then I had to make the silhouettes, could not find them online. They are very similar to the stickers you can get, but these girls are all mine (with one exception, the block letters have girls on them, they came that way from a font website.)

Wolske on Immigration

Seems that my brother and I do not share the same feelings on the subject of immigration. Our family moved from Canada (Great White North, eh!) to Maryland in 1991. We went through the countless forms and fees ( to this day I have no idea how much it cost, I was 12), the interviews, the test, and finally, the oath ( I didn't say the part about renouncing other governments, I just let the rest of the room say that one out loud...). Either way, the process is by no means cheap or easy, but they will let you use a translator if need be (Yes, even for the final test...)

Now I don't know if Urban location has anything to do with our outlooks, I live in a neighborhood that is predominantly Black and Hispanic with a Mexican style market less than two blocks away, and my Brother lives in a nice quiet neighborhood in Gaithersburg, you would thing that we would be on the other side of the fence from where we are.

Maybe it is our jobs, I've worked in Manufacturing (Lots of immigrants there), Telemarketing (As long as you can speak english they'll hire you to read their scripts, even with a thick accent), even with Federal laws requiring employers to photocopy identification and SSC I've been around a lot of "undocumented workers".

Not to mention the fact that in Las Vegas you can drive to any Home Depot or Lowes and pick up a handfull of illegals to do your dirty work and pay them beans. (not to make any racial slurs here, that's just the phrase that popped into my head regarding the low cost of these workers). If I were new to this country, I'd head right down to the swap meet (almost all the vendors are mexican) and buy myself the proper paperwork, along with knock off clothes and cheap jewlery, not fair to the companies that are being knocked off, but they do it every day.

The problem, as I see it, and I do mean I see it is the misuse/abuse of our system. If a person (assumed to be legal, sorry ...documented/insert other liberal happy talk here) has gotten themselves on Section 8 assistance they can get a decent apartment for pennies on the dollar compared to what the other tenants pay, the government (state and federal) pick up the slack. That's great for someone who is down on their luck, the problem is this: Once a person is approved for section 8 status and they find themselves a home, there are very few inspections completed which leads to abuse, there may be 4 or 5 (maybe more) people living in this apartment, helping each other with the $60 a month for rent, and splitting the groceries. Sounds like a great roomate situation to me, but it is ILLEGAL. Also, immediate health comcerns cannot be refused at a hospital, what does that mean?? All I have to do is go to the emergency room (some of which have all of their intercom calling in spanish, makes you feel proud to be an American) to get anything fixed or checked out, and they will have to be able to find me to collect what I owe, if I'm undocumented they will never find me, STEALING IS ILLEGAL. also, it is a FELONY to put any other persons Social security number on any documentation, ILLEGAL..... The only way to explain these people is ILLEGAL.

We came to the states and our Father was working, paying taxes, the rest of the family got jobs (as age permitted) and we paid taxes, the home that we lived in was taxed, the state had it's taxes, the Federal governent had it's taxes. We went through a long and drawn out process to become citizens, we didn't run acros some filthy desert and occupy space and abuse the system we had sneaked ourselves into.

You want to talk about crime? There are may latino gangs, some of them have clever little names that gringos don't really know what they mean, some of them just work under the guise of pre-exhisting gangs. There is a small casino not far from my apartment that hosts a number of "Big Name' concerts (not really) and it is there, when the parking lot is full of people waiting in line, that people are getting shot at, or fights are breaking out. You just don't see that at predominantly white (oooh I said it) locations. I'm not going to get into all of society, becase this is about the immigration issue, but it seems like it all comes to parentin really. 'when you make it to America, be sure to make lots of babies, they will be covered by the government and they will have to let you stay' I'm sure that is part of the master plan that is being told throughout the land south of the border.

As for me, I'm with the minutemen. or motion activated turrets........ Come to Fabulous Las Vegas anytime for a dose of reality and I'll show you the problem.

Music is my life

Since my abrupt career change, it has been really nice to be able to tell people what I do for a living. I say, 'I'm a musician, and I do freelance audio work on the side.' WHat a great feeling to be titled with your dream job!! I have recently started doing sound at GracePoint church here in North Las Vegas, and the music director/worship leader gave me a fellow's phone number regarding a job working as a sound engineer for the city of North Las Vegas, so that should be interesting if I get it! anywho, it's just a nice feeling to know that I can work in the field that I love!! I really have to thank God for these opportunities and My Wife for all of her support. Without those two things, I'd still be training salespeople to do retention at a call center.....

Sloppy Joes, Homemade

Boy can my wife cook! She came home for lunch today and decided that she wanted sloppy joes. She's never made sloppy joes before, and just made them from scratch!! She took a pound of ground beef, some chili powder, diced dried onions, BBQ sauce and worcester sauce and made killer sloppy joes!! Best part is, there's plenty of the meat left over to have again tomorrow!! Yummy.

pics of my new baby

My new bass came last week!! Check it out!!

Tourist for a day

My wife called me and asked if I could be a tourist for a day. What I was actualy asked to do was t get some infirmation and pictures of Las Vegas for a young friend back in Salisbury, MD who is doing a school report of Nevada. I spent a few hours driving through my fair city, snapping shots out the window, then I thought, 'wait, there's more to Vegas than the strip' so I went to the edge of the valley and took some pictures of the mountains and the valley to show how small the strip is compared to the city of Las Vegas and the valley as a whole. We have an atomic testing museum, it shows all sorts of neato stuff about all of the testing that has gone on around the desert, lots of neat gadgets!! Some other cool things about our valley and it's surrounding areas are: Lake Mead , Red Rock, The Old Mormon fort (Where Las Vegas started). Come to think of it, our valley is pretty cool!! The strip loses it's appeal after the first three months of living here, but that just opens up your eyes to all the other cool stuff that there is around Las Vegas, or if you want to drive there is always a drive up to AREA 51....

New Project getting off the ground

My new musical project, Nasty Habits is getting of the ground finally, We are working out the details of our sets, and fully ready to accept bookings! Check us out at http://nastyhabitslv.com

Career change

Ever have an opportunity come up that is so good, you just can't say no? About two weeks ago I got a call form a friend who does audio work professionally asking if I'd be interested in subbing on a shoot for him. The chance to work in a field that I love!!! I said yes and spent a week at the Arena of the MGM working a confrence. Once we had the cables run and everything checked, it was my job to make sure any audio glitches that were in my control were fixed immediately. Nothing went wrong! We had a week of great days, I got to know some of the crew (who all do this tye of video work professionally. The last night we watched the Steve Miller Band, then we took down all of our equipment and said g'night! It was a great shoot, no problems, perfect for getting my foot in the door. The shoot ended on Thursday, on Friday my friend called me again, this time to see if I could sub in for someone else. That Sunday and Monday I was putting microphones on some of the top Poker players in the country! I made sure that I did the best I could (which I always do) in hopes that someone would notice it, as I am still the new guy in the biz... So far I am waiting to hear from my frined or the powers that be about booking more shoots to work on... So you ask how is this a career change? Well, I wsa working as a trainer at a call center here in Vegas, I liked my job, but it was just kind of a way to pay the bills and soak up a lot of my time... The week that I was away for the shoots, I was not attending that job, and thusly I am no longer employed there... THe best is yet to come, however, as I have been looking at a lot of online resources, it seems that one can do quite nicely in Las Vegas doing odd jobs, or part time promotional work. I'll keep you informed of my progress as I go along, should be fun, eh!?

Me and my life

I was born in Canada, moved to Maryland when I was 12 and moved to Las Vegas two and a half years ago. Isn't it positively astounding how quickly you can sum it all up? But what about all the stuff in the middle? That would make a great story, maybe later.

Go easy on me, it's my first time...

Hey world, Jon Wolske here, I've heard so much about blogging that I just thought I'd try it myself. I guess I have something to say, I'll have to figure out what as I go along.