I'm going to keep this short, because I am really tired, and a little drunk, but here goes... If you live in the US, and watch the news at all, you have probably seen the coverage on the tornado system that hit the south eastern US. I was fortunate enough to have been missed by this, we just had a simple thunder storm. First thing this morning, I awake to the news that my home town was destroyed. The phone lines were down, of course, so I ventured off at the crack of dawn to make sure that my family was okay. (I live about 70 miles away from them) My family and their homes are fine, they were spared, thank God! But the mass devistation was like a nightmare. Houses were thrown from mountain sides into the roads, cars were in trees, mattresses were in trees, walls were ripped from homes and you could see into their homes just like a doll house, steel beams were bent and ripped from the ground, it was heart breaking. Not only my home town, several neighboring towns in Kentucky, as well as Indiana and Tennessee were destroyed. FEMA and the National Guard are around now, trying to put things back together, and lots of nice folks are working to help the tornado victims, as well as donating goods. It just breaks my heart to know that so many people have lost lives, homes, businesses and everything in this. All of the memories that I have of that small town are now only memories. There's no going back to the way things were. This is a bad time for this part of the country, if you're a spiritual person, please pray for all of those who were impacted by this. It will take time, but I would love to see these communities join together and rebuild. This is the first time that a tornado system of this caliber has entered into these mountains, they have always been like a protective shield for us. We typically have flash floods, but never tornadoes, I guess that has changed. Anyway, this "short" post has turned into a long one. I'm not sure if it will make sense in the morning, cause like I stated above, I am slightly drunk. Thanks for reading though, and please send out positive thoughts and prayers for all who are in need. -GM

So, I suppose that I would be classified as a "hillbilly" or a "Hill-Jilly", if you prefer the girly term. Growing up in the Appalachian Mountains, I have heard so many negative things said about our area. I blame most of this on television and movies. Of course every B-rated horror film HAS to be made in the mountains of West Virginia, because everyone knows that's where cannibals come from *rolls eyes*. There was a Dateline NBC special about my home town (in Ky) a few years ago, they portrayed it as being a 100% poor and sad community, which isn't true. It is actually the coal capital of the country, which is a big, big, big, mega money industry (regardless of if you support coal or not). There is also a negative stigma surrounding the Appalachian dialect and we are presumed to be (as my father would say) "dumb as rocks". I read an article a little while back that explains why the Appalachian people talk the way that we do. It is apparently an authentic form of the English language, influenced by the heavy concentration of Scots-Irish settlers who moved here originally. I guess that's why there are so many distinct dialects throughout the country, it all depends on which settlers landed there first. Here is the URL for anyone who is interested in reading. http://www.wvculture.org/history/journal_wvh/wvh30-2.html Also, I'm trying to revive some of my grandparents' generation's old words, some of which are becoming obsolete. Do me a favor, the next time you're in the check out line at the grocery store, ask for them to use a "paper poke" instead of a "plastic poke".

I have noticed that many of the members on this site are artists in some form or another. Has anyone else noticed this? Are we (redheads) just genetically inclined to be artsy people? Anyway, this is my first blog entry, so I will keep it simple and share one of my paintings. This is a 12x24 acrylic painting from Fall 2009. When I show my artwork, it doesn't seem to get as much recognition as some of my other pieces, but I put more hours of work into this one, than most of my other paintings.