just to start

Hello. My name is Jeff Olson and I like to rock and roll. I also like to chat, and now I'm starting to blog, even. Computers are cool. :)

My main interests are kitbuilding (1/35 scale ground forces ww2), music, castles, science, politics, hunting, all kindsa stuff. I also speak fluent Minnesotan, ya ya. :)

Today, I went in to work but the weather was total crap. Rain and snow mixed, stuff I really don't like driving in. So I went home early. Six hours early. :) No, I really don't like to get out of work, but I really don't like wrecking my car/killing myself or others, either. It was an Occam's razor kinda thing, ya know? :)

It's ok, really; prolly in another coupla months I won't be working at my current job any more. I have a gold mine in my home town that may be opening up soon, I'm gonna try like hell to get in there. Then I can go fishing every day. It's paradise up there, people; if you have ever been up north ta Ely, then you will know what I mean. But enough of that, it's just a bun inna oven right now. :)

I suppose, this being my first entry in the blogosphere, that I should kinda tell you all about myself, briefly. Except, I can't do that. There's nothing about me that's brief. :) Well, except my underwear, of course. :)

No, you people all have to put up with the long-winded version of me. That can be a chore, I know, but, well, you will find it worth it in the end. :) :) :)

I was born on 5/28/61 in Ely, Minnesota, just a few hours after my mom & dad were out fishing. A year after that, they gave me a sister, about a year and a half later another sister. We lived in Babbitt until 1966/7 and then moved to hell. I won't go into that. Upon graduation from hell, I enlisted in the USNavy for a 6 year stint, serving on a submarine as a nuclear-qualified electrician. After that, I moved to San Antonio, Texas, living there for about a year, moving to San Diego, CA. for about another year. After that, I moved back to Minnesota, attended college for awhile at the UM Morris. Since then, I've lived a few other places in Minnesota, mostly chasing jobs and then working them. Right now, I live in Rochester, and I work making junk mail in the nearby town of Byron. See? Nice and long-winded, and that's just the beginning. :)

What am I like? Well, I like to think that I'm fairly intelligent and articulate, even erudite, depending on the subject. Im pretty well-versed in most physical science fields and know a lot about a bunch of other, more trivial, matters. The main thing with me is that I don't suffer a fool lightly, even if it's me. :) But I'm also one to joke, sometimes inappropriately, but never intending to be harmful. I'm also pretty quick-minded, and boyoboy can that ever get one into trouble, lemme tell ya. :) Oh, yes, and I like to talk. A lot. A real lot. Gotta step on my neck to get me to shut up kind of real lot. :)

I also read a lot, the vast majority of which is nonfiction. My interests are listed above, but that's not a complete list. Basically, my interests can be defined by whatever interests me at the time. :) But that says an awful lot without saying anything. Gotta question? Ask.

The most influential book I have ever read (outside of nonfiction) is Hesse's "Steppenwolf". Read it and you will know me well. Otherwise, I get an awful lot of inspiration from 60s/70s music. You know, the kind your mama warned you about. :)

Though I'm starving in the streets and can predict the future. . . .
- John Kay

Politically, I'm more-or-less a moderate. Whatever seems to work the best is what I tend to go with. I don't do religion. I will warn everyone ahead of time, I can be a very fiesty discussionist on politics/religion. Some people would label me an asshole. Oh well, how boring this planet would be without a little dissent, eh? :)

Ahhh, but enough of me for now. Time to just dream and type. . . .

The two of them were fishing. The day, bright, the sky, blue, the lake a dull, calm gray. The eastern breeze was why they were in that particular spot, near ringrock; they were backtrolling thru the minor chop where the bay turned into the main part of the lake. They were father and son, the boy trying hard to be like dad, and the father trying hard to teach his son some patience. Unfortunately, most of the action was on the dad's line, not the son's. The boy slowly began to realize that there was more to this fishing stuff than just catching fish. He began to look at the world for the first time, and it was a wonder, even for an 8 year old. Why, just coming up to the lake, they had seen a moose-cow and a couple of bears. Just a few hours before, they were looking at what dad called "mergansers" (funny ducks) and a nesting pair of bald eagles. Like any youngster, his mind began to roam from the tedium of watching his rod tip, and he began to dream of things going on around him, in those infinite woods surrounding the lake. There were giants up there, all around him. There were indians and outlaws in the woods - adventures to be had, places that needed his feet walking on them, so he could see. . . . .

The jerking motion the boat made brought him back, dad had just set the hook in another fish. "'Nother walleye, dad?"; but before he could answer, there was a tap-tap-tap and a major downward motion to his own rod tip - he had a fish on, too!!! In his excitement, he set the hook hard but was rewarded with a further tension on his line and lots of motion of the rod. The both of them worked thier fish, alternating with the sound of the drag pulling out with the clicking of the cranking of the reel. "Net!! Net!!" bellowed the elder, his standard procedure when he got the fish close enough to the boat. "I got a fish on here, dad!!!" came the response, and for once the dad didn't get mad. Carefully holding the rod in one hand, he reached for the net and netted his own fish, then the boy's. Both fish were flipping and flopping all over the bottom of the boat when he emptied the net.

"Is mine a keeper, dad?"

"He's as big as mine, maybe a little bigger, we'll keep both, eh?"

"Now, grab yours and put 'im on the stringer, like this." He deftly scooped up his fish in one hand and grabbed the half-full stringer with the other, untying it from it's loose knot and placing the pointy end in the walleye's mouth and thru the gillslit, then handing the stringer to his son, who followed suit. There were already 4 keepers on the stringer, and the boy had to struggle to get them all back over the side of the boat and into the water again, without losing them all. Hanging on to part of the stringer, he took the end and loosely retied it back onto the gunwhale of the boat.

OK, ok, like that's godawful. Well, I tried. Anyways, that enough for now - I just wanted to try this out kwik to see how it goes.