If you came to this site expecting to find PattsPorts Imports,
sorry. PattsPorts was humanely retired some time ago. I put a few
thousand dollars in; I got almost that much back. I put thousands of
hours in; I'll never get them back.
On a personal level, PattsPorts Imports was
worth it. I learned a bit about Internet marketing and how to create a
(pretty shabby, but free) web site. I learned who I could trust. I
learned who I couldn't trust. I made new friends both in Old Mexico and
the States. I revisited the way the rest of this world (accurately)
percieves the U.S. I traveled on conveyances that would scare the
BeGeezus out of most folks, but I did so comfortably. During rush hour
in cities that would dwarf our largest, I've assisted Mexican cabbies as they
shouted obsenities at drivers of adjacent vehicles. I've been treated
to the deluxe, no charge tour of Monterrey because my cabbie missed his
turn ("No lukey weemin wheen drive."). I've walked back streets where
that probably wasn't a bright thing to do. I met honest people there--a
lot more honest than the gringos that hate them. I never made it to
Chihuahua, but I've heard that even Mexicans can't understand the
language there. The trip would have been wasted on me, but I know Mata
Ortiz pottery to be the most beautiful on our planet. Most
importantly, I learned to trust my lyin' eyes. What you see is what you
get when it comes to people. If there's something wrong with what you
see, find the exit. People don't change. The users, liars, and other
garbage will just try to drag you down to their level. Given the
gulibility of the folk who listen to them, they'll succeed.
So, I'm back on the air. Reopening PattsPorts
Imports. Naw! Just kiddin'. I need a rest from that stuff. It's just
that I had to renew the domain name or lose it, and my registrar
requires that I have a site for the domain name, so here we go. (Caveat: This site will be changing
quite often, and browsers sometimes pull a nasty trick called caching.
That means you may not see the changes and additions because your
browser has stored (cached) the original view of the page. Once it does
that, that's all you'll see until you refresh the page. If you use the
IE browser, press Ctrl + F5 to refresh the page.)
The
good news is that I don't have anything to sell. The bad news? Until I
find a good use for this site, I'm gonna share some of my opinions with
you. Some stuff may be about motorcycles. Some may be about fishing.
You may like those. But a lot will be about this country we live in and
the people who inhabit it. That stuff is gonna be honest and accurate.
You won't like that.
Five, four, three, two, one; we have igniti . . .
Hold on a second while I 'splain the painting I jammed in here for no
apparent reason. I stuck it here because I'm testing a new web authoring
program called Nvu and I needed to see how Nvu handles images. The
painting is one of mine called Madrugada. It is mostly stolen from a character named Jerry
Yarnell. His home is in
Tulsa. You may be familiar with him if you watch PBS. He does a weekly painting show there. You can find him here:
http://www.yarnellart.com. A
lot of Jerry's stuff comes from a time he
lived in New Mexico. I modified the painting to more accurately depict
the colors and scenes of the Sierra Madre in Old Mexico. Jerry does his
stuff with acrylics on canvas. All my work is done with acrylics on
plywood--a bit less expensive
than canvas, and a lot more difficult to work with, but I like the textures of plywood--it produces a
virtually unreplicable brush stroke. There are some egregious errors in
my painting, but errors are correctible if the artist gives a damn. At
the present time, I don't. Corrections require patience--the stuff of
rainy days accompanied by a good bottle of single malt--or they look
like patches. Hazard a guess. Think I like Old Mexico? Now we've got
ignition.
Ignition doesn't mean much if you can't guide this turkey. That
requires what we tag masters call buttons (links). So I'm gonna ride
the Internet's special little yellow school bus back to Nvu and see if
it's got some easy way to do these. If it doesn't, I'll just quit. If
it does, they'll appear here:
I