Holy Underwear
There is this little autistic nebbish that comes in almost everyday and sometimes he blesses us with a telephone reference question. Today he wanted me to read to him over the phone Gloria Estefan's astrological natal chart. I have no punchline for this, I will just go lay down.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
They are all the same
Sure, I'm going to vote for Obama but we all know that no matter who is in the White House there won't be much real change. You can see that here (thanks to Jim for the link). My only real question in this election year is how soon will Obama become Bill Clinton? He's already halfway there because the far right hates him almost as much as they hated Clinton. In fact the Obama hatred on the right is about as deep as what they felt for Clinton during Clinton's second term. The next step in Obama becoming Clinton will require him to leave a trail of disillusioned supporters in his wake. Can he do it? Supposedly he's an astute politician, what else could possibly happen?
Sure, I'm going to vote for Obama but we all know that no matter who is in the White House there won't be much real change. You can see that here (thanks to Jim for the link). My only real question in this election year is how soon will Obama become Bill Clinton? He's already halfway there because the far right hates him almost as much as they hated Clinton. In fact the Obama hatred on the right is about as deep as what they felt for Clinton during Clinton's second term. The next step in Obama becoming Clinton will require him to leave a trail of disillusioned supporters in his wake. Can he do it? Supposedly he's an astute politician, what else could possibly happen?
Dick Cavett on Johnny Carson
I can't believe I haven't mentioned this here yet but Dick Cavett has a blog on the New York Times website. It's excellent, if I do say so myself. He wrote a great piece on Johnny Carson recently that I can't recommend highly enough.
Speaking of Carson there is a plethora of Johnny Carson content on Youtube. If you want some good yucks do a search of Don Rickles and Johnny Carson.
I can't believe I haven't mentioned this here yet but Dick Cavett has a blog on the New York Times website. It's excellent, if I do say so myself. He wrote a great piece on Johnny Carson recently that I can't recommend highly enough.
Speaking of Carson there is a plethora of Johnny Carson content on Youtube. If you want some good yucks do a search of Don Rickles and Johnny Carson.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Follow me to Breakfast
Follow me to Breakfast
Originally uploaded by zzazazz
We have a gate up at the house so the cats can have a sanctuary where the dog can't get to them. The cats will come out and hang out at the bottom of the stairs in the morning. When I come down they leap over the gate in anticipation of me following them into the laundry where I will then feed them. Those cats are really starting to piss me off.
The Tsunami
The tsunami that occurred over in Asia in December of 2004 has always been fascinating to me. It's too bad it killed so many people because as a display of the awesome power of nature it's unparalleled in my lifetime unless, of course, you include the encounter we have with the sun everyday. Today I found the pictures taken in Thailand from a mountain overlooking the coast. They are once in a lifetime shots.
The tsunami that occurred over in Asia in December of 2004 has always been fascinating to me. It's too bad it killed so many people because as a display of the awesome power of nature it's unparalleled in my lifetime unless, of course, you include the encounter we have with the sun everyday. Today I found the pictures taken in Thailand from a mountain overlooking the coast. They are once in a lifetime shots.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Russia and Georgia
This invasion of Georgia by Russia is pretty scary to me. I'd be less nervous if our president had half a fucking clue. Alas, such is not our fate right now. David Remnick, the editor of the New Yorker, has a nice comment piece on the situation. Here's a quote that sums up how I think: "The press, the parliament, the judiciary, the business élite are all in his pocket—and there is no opposition. But Putin also knows that Russia cannot bear the cost of reconstituting empire or the gulag. It depends on the West as a market. One lesson of the Soviet experience is that isolation ends in poverty. Putin’s is a new and subtler game: he is the autocrat who calls on the widow of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. To deal with him will require statecraft of a kind that has proved well beyond the capacities of our current practitioners."
This invasion of Georgia by Russia is pretty scary to me. I'd be less nervous if our president had half a fucking clue. Alas, such is not our fate right now. David Remnick, the editor of the New Yorker, has a nice comment piece on the situation. Here's a quote that sums up how I think: "The press, the parliament, the judiciary, the business élite are all in his pocket—and there is no opposition. But Putin also knows that Russia cannot bear the cost of reconstituting empire or the gulag. It depends on the West as a market. One lesson of the Soviet experience is that isolation ends in poverty. Putin’s is a new and subtler game: he is the autocrat who calls on the widow of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. To deal with him will require statecraft of a kind that has proved well beyond the capacities of our current practitioners."
Thursday, August 14, 2008
LOL Bush
We all know and love LOL Cats but have you seen the LOL Bush at the Olympics put together by the Guardian? It's a hoot.
We all know and love LOL Cats but have you seen the LOL Bush at the Olympics put together by the Guardian? It's a hoot.
Monday, August 11, 2008
The Dark Knight
Saturday afternoon we finally saw The Dark Knight. Everything you have heard about the performance of Heath Ledger is true. He might be receiving a little less attention currently for his role if he hadn't died but not much less. Heath Ledger as the Joker is amazing. I thought the way they chose to portray the Joker was genius. Instead of trying to recreate the comic book character like in the first Batman movie they had Ledger wear clown makeup and then portray a murdering psychopath with a sense of humor. In doing that they came frighteningly close to bringing the essence of the Joker to a live action film. Remember when you first saw Toby Maguire portray Peter Parker? Ledger gave me that same 'wow' feeling when he stumbles confidently into a meeting of Gotham's mob bosses. He brings to the character an edge and a humanness that didn't exist in Jack Nicholson's portrayal. Ledger's Joker is scary. This Joker would kill you just as soon as look at you. If you killed him he wouldn't care either, just as long as it was interesting.
Alligators make cool noises
I found a library of animal sounds today and if you go here you can here a great recording of an alligator.
Saturday afternoon we finally saw The Dark Knight. Everything you have heard about the performance of Heath Ledger is true. He might be receiving a little less attention currently for his role if he hadn't died but not much less. Heath Ledger as the Joker is amazing. I thought the way they chose to portray the Joker was genius. Instead of trying to recreate the comic book character like in the first Batman movie they had Ledger wear clown makeup and then portray a murdering psychopath with a sense of humor. In doing that they came frighteningly close to bringing the essence of the Joker to a live action film. Remember when you first saw Toby Maguire portray Peter Parker? Ledger gave me that same 'wow' feeling when he stumbles confidently into a meeting of Gotham's mob bosses. He brings to the character an edge and a humanness that didn't exist in Jack Nicholson's portrayal. Ledger's Joker is scary. This Joker would kill you just as soon as look at you. If you killed him he wouldn't care either, just as long as it was interesting.
Alligators make cool noises
I found a library of animal sounds today and if you go here you can here a great recording of an alligator.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Sculpted Trees
IMG_2289
Originally uploaded by zzazazz
You can't see it very well in this picture but down the street from us lives an Asian gentleman that sculpts the evergreens in his front yard. He did a wonderful job with them. I'll have to try and take a picture of them again so you can see his work more clearly.
Friday, August 08, 2008
Another Great Day in the War on Drugs
The stupid War on Terror is closing the gap but the ridiculous war on drugs is still the biggest threat to our liberties.
The stupid War on Terror is closing the gap but the ridiculous war on drugs is still the biggest threat to our liberties.
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
The Battle for a Country's Soul
Jane Mayer wrote this great piece for the New York Review of Books. I don't know if anything else can better sum up the horror of the rule of Bush and Cheney.
Jane Mayer wrote this great piece for the New York Review of Books. I don't know if anything else can better sum up the horror of the rule of Bush and Cheney.
Paris Responds to McCain
This will teach McCain to mess with someone that can afford to hire a better marketing staff.
Once again John Stewart and the Daily Show sum it up better than anybody else.
This will teach McCain to mess with someone that can afford to hire a better marketing staff.
Once again John Stewart and the Daily Show sum it up better than anybody else.
Hello, Garrison
He Who Saw Hendrix sent me a great link to the current Salon column by Garrison Keillor. I quote: "And it's an amazing country where an Arizona multimillionaire can attack a Chicago South Sider as an elitist and hope to make it stick. The Chicagoan was brought up by a single mom who had big ambitions for him, and he got scholarshipped into Harvard Law and was made president of the law review, all of it on his own hook, whereas the Arizonan is the son of an admiral and was ushered into Annapolis though an indifferent student, much like the Current Occupant, both of them men who are very lucky that their fathers were born before they were. The Chicagoan, who grew up without a father, wrote a book on his own, using a computer. The Arizonan hired people to write his for him. But because the Chicagoan can say what he thinks and make sense and the Arizonan cannot do that for more than 30 seconds at a time, the old guy is hoping to portray the skinny guy as arrogant.
Good luck with that, sir."
Jim has been sending me links to Garrison's column for several months now and I can't recommend it enough. I thought we had run out of ways to point out the foibles of the likes of Bush, Cheney and McCain but Garrison keeps plugging away and expanding the commentary.
He Who Saw Hendrix sent me a great link to the current Salon column by Garrison Keillor. I quote: "And it's an amazing country where an Arizona multimillionaire can attack a Chicago South Sider as an elitist and hope to make it stick. The Chicagoan was brought up by a single mom who had big ambitions for him, and he got scholarshipped into Harvard Law and was made president of the law review, all of it on his own hook, whereas the Arizonan is the son of an admiral and was ushered into Annapolis though an indifferent student, much like the Current Occupant, both of them men who are very lucky that their fathers were born before they were. The Chicagoan, who grew up without a father, wrote a book on his own, using a computer. The Arizonan hired people to write his for him. But because the Chicagoan can say what he thinks and make sense and the Arizonan cannot do that for more than 30 seconds at a time, the old guy is hoping to portray the skinny guy as arrogant.
Good luck with that, sir."
Jim has been sending me links to Garrison's column for several months now and I can't recommend it enough. I thought we had run out of ways to point out the foibles of the likes of Bush, Cheney and McCain but Garrison keeps plugging away and expanding the commentary.
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
The Oympics
I've always enjoyed the Olympic games and today I saw that the New York Times had a nice animated map of the medal count for countries since 1896. You can view it here.
The Panthers and Steve Smith
It's guaranteed that at some point during a season all-star wide receiver Steve Smith is going to physically attack one of his teammates. A couple of days ago he attacked Ken Lucas on the sidelines. Supposedly these two have been going at it pretty hard in practice over the years and, with Smith's temper, it was bound to happen. The Panthers announced that they were suspending Smith for the first two games of the regular season. I say why suspend a guy for being a violent football player? Aren't these guys routinely referred to as "modern gladiators?" I say fights among teammates should be encouraged. What could better bring a team together than a few fights. How often did you get into a fight in high school and end up finding a new friend? Conflict and manly resolution bring respect. Not only should intrasquad fighting being encouraged but football teams should have an annual boxing tournament among players that have accumulated grudges. You could even broadcast the fights on the tube. At least it would give the football fan something interesting to watch during the preseason.
I've always enjoyed the Olympic games and today I saw that the New York Times had a nice animated map of the medal count for countries since 1896. You can view it here.
The Panthers and Steve Smith
It's guaranteed that at some point during a season all-star wide receiver Steve Smith is going to physically attack one of his teammates. A couple of days ago he attacked Ken Lucas on the sidelines. Supposedly these two have been going at it pretty hard in practice over the years and, with Smith's temper, it was bound to happen. The Panthers announced that they were suspending Smith for the first two games of the regular season. I say why suspend a guy for being a violent football player? Aren't these guys routinely referred to as "modern gladiators?" I say fights among teammates should be encouraged. What could better bring a team together than a few fights. How often did you get into a fight in high school and end up finding a new friend? Conflict and manly resolution bring respect. Not only should intrasquad fighting being encouraged but football teams should have an annual boxing tournament among players that have accumulated grudges. You could even broadcast the fights on the tube. At least it would give the football fan something interesting to watch during the preseason.
Monday, August 04, 2008
Sunday, August 03, 2008
Friday, August 01, 2008
Rhodo at Valle Crucis, NC
Last weekend was the annual trip to Valle Crucis, NC. It's a beautiful area and a nice place to pitch and tent and hang out for a couple of days.
Here we see Scott sitting on the bank above the creek that runs parallel to the campground doing a little business on his cell phone.
A couple of kids from the campsite next to us playing hide and seek
>
This is a shot of our little community we set up. Music is being played on an Ipod that is using a jerry rigged jam box which is connected to a large battery. Some serious backwoodsman engineering going on there.
>
Bobby arrives bearing beer. He feels pretty happy about it. He won't feel so happy Saturday night after all that vodka catches up with him. Call it a learning experience.
.
These gentlemen were watching the wiffle ball competition because they love sports. It had nothing to do with the two 18 year olds wearing bikinis.
>
On the left is Stevie he's been going to Rhodo for over thirty years. On the right is Murphy. He's been going almost as long. They are the two people you know will be there. And me, I haven't missed one since I started going in 1998 or 1999.
>
This is my special lady friend, Melanie. She has had to be convinced to go to Rhodo each of the last two years and each time she gets there she has fun. Go figure.
The only picture of me that survived the chaos.
>
Of course we had a fire. No one fell in it.
>
The next day we played frisbee. Miles has good technique. One my favorite things about Rhodo is I get to hang out with kids.
Bobby's form wasn't too bad either. Notice the bathrooms in the background. Not the most beautiful structure in the world but there are real toilets and showers with hot water.
Miles is a bit of a ham.
>
Here's how we spent most of Saturday: eating, chit chatting, reading and just plain relaxing.
Saturday evening we went to the apple barn down the street for the annual barn dance. The Lenny Federal Band played. They came out blazing and never slowed down for the next two hours. Lenny's band just keeps getting tighter.
Here's Lenny
Everyone's friend, Bill Walpole
Malin and John Wicker
Bobby and Wendell. Notice Bobby's eyes are at half mast. He's about twenty minutes from crashing in his cousin's car.
I told you Miles was a ham
Barry flashing the secret devil sign
An ever more wobbly Bobby wobbles next to his cousin, Caroline.
The band plays on
It wouldn't be Rhodo without this guy singing Sixteen Tons
Sunday morning's rundown campground
A hungover Wendell lets me know what he thinks of having his picture taken right as he crawls out of his tent.
I'll post a few more tomorrow. It was a picture takin' weekend.
Last weekend was the annual trip to Valle Crucis, NC. It's a beautiful area and a nice place to pitch and tent and hang out for a couple of days.
Here we see Scott sitting on the bank above the creek that runs parallel to the campground doing a little business on his cell phone.
A couple of kids from the campsite next to us playing hide and seek
>This is a shot of our little community we set up. Music is being played on an Ipod that is using a jerry rigged jam box which is connected to a large battery. Some serious backwoodsman engineering going on there.
>Bobby arrives bearing beer. He feels pretty happy about it. He won't feel so happy Saturday night after all that vodka catches up with him. Call it a learning experience.
.These gentlemen were watching the wiffle ball competition because they love sports. It had nothing to do with the two 18 year olds wearing bikinis.
>On the left is Stevie he's been going to Rhodo for over thirty years. On the right is Murphy. He's been going almost as long. They are the two people you know will be there. And me, I haven't missed one since I started going in 1998 or 1999.
>This is my special lady friend, Melanie. She has had to be convinced to go to Rhodo each of the last two years and each time she gets there she has fun. Go figure.
The only picture of me that survived the chaos.
>Of course we had a fire. No one fell in it.
>The next day we played frisbee. Miles has good technique. One my favorite things about Rhodo is I get to hang out with kids.
Bobby's form wasn't too bad either. Notice the bathrooms in the background. Not the most beautiful structure in the world but there are real toilets and showers with hot water.
Miles is a bit of a ham.
>Here's how we spent most of Saturday: eating, chit chatting, reading and just plain relaxing.
Saturday evening we went to the apple barn down the street for the annual barn dance. The Lenny Federal Band played. They came out blazing and never slowed down for the next two hours. Lenny's band just keeps getting tighter.
Here's Lenny
Everyone's friend, Bill Walpole
Malin and John Wicker
Bobby and Wendell. Notice Bobby's eyes are at half mast. He's about twenty minutes from crashing in his cousin's car.
I told you Miles was a ham
Barry flashing the secret devil sign
An ever more wobbly Bobby wobbles next to his cousin, Caroline.
The band plays on
It wouldn't be Rhodo without this guy singing Sixteen Tons
Sunday morning's rundown campground
A hungover Wendell lets me know what he thinks of having his picture taken right as he crawls out of his tent.
I'll post a few more tomorrow. It was a picture takin' weekend.
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