Cat in a Window

This is our most recent cat, Sandy Porter. She really wants to kill them birds.

World Leader Compare

George W. Bush



Winston Churchill



Just sayin'

The Weirdest Thing

Monday while at lunch Twitter blew up because of the attack at the Boston Marathon. Simultaneously, next to the McDonald's where I was eating EMS vehicles were roaring into the Marathon gas station next door. It was a little surreal. Tragedy at the Marathon.

Smaller Films

I like it when a thread starts flying around Twitter and people spend an hour trying to impress others with the wittiness. It's a fun part of Twitter. They often take the form of the one I participated in last night. I saw a few people I follow were posting and using the tag #smallerfilms and making up funny fake film titles that riff on existing films. Good times.

Here is a few I came up with:

The Couch Potato's Guide the Galaxy #smallerfilms

— Ed McDonald (@zzazazz) April 6, 2013

Jefferson Starship Troopers #smallerfilms @galenblack

— Ed McDonald (@zzazazz) April 7, 2013

O Brother Where...oh, Hey! #smallerfilms

— Ed McDonald (@zzazazz) April 6, 2013

Researchers of the Lost Ark #smallerfilms

— Ed McDonald (@zzazazz) April 6, 2013

The Greatest Story Ever Paraphrased #smallerfilms

— Ed McDonald (@zzazazz) April 6, 2013

Miffed Calf #smallerfilms

— Ed McDonald (@zzazazz) April 6, 2013

It was this one last night by John Scalzi that got me going.

Star Jaunt #smallerfilms

— John Scalzi (@scalzi) April 6, 2013

Spring Done Sprung All Up in Here

Outside the library at lunch.

A Barred Owl

Yesterday Melanie heard an owl calling in our neighborhood. She has eagle eyes and spotted this beauty in a tree in our neighbor's backyard.





If you have never heard one of these owls calling, it's beautiful. (Not my video)

Stay Classy, Fox Nation

Ah, the Fox Nation website. Nowhere in the galaxy will you find a more wretched hive of pig ignorance and racial hatred. It really is a site to behold. Get it? Today there was a story full of fake outrage and racism that was a low mark even for these bottom feeders. They are outraged that Michelle Obama 'dodged' questons about Benghazi during a Twitter Q/A session. What? Since when does a first lady ever answer questions about national or international policy over Twitter? Or, at all, anywhere? Another fake right wing outrage that would be funny if it wasn't full of real hatred.

This comment thread below sums up nicely the racism and hate that populates the comments at the Fox Nation.


Yes, it's so cute how they train them.

Two More Views of Daytona Wreck

You can never have enough of these crowd shots of bad wrecks.



This is the best one so far

Mayhem at Daytona

It finally happened. After years and and years of dodging bullets with these big crashes at Talladega and Daytona, NASCAR had the wreck they've been denying. A car flew into the fence and fans were injured by debris. A tire actually flew twenty rows up into the stands. A tire flew into the stands at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1999 during an Indy car race. That tire killed three people. Yesterday NASCAR got lucky. They have been bunching up their cars by using restrictor plates and last lap crashes at the start finish line are now standard and very scary. I think one of the reasons is the safety of the cars. Drivers now accept wrecking at 190 mph at the finish line because they know they are going to walk away. It wasn't like that in the 1990s before Earnhardt died. Today there will be a Daytona 500 and fans will be sitting in the lower grandstand next to the fence. Let's hope the big wreck at the end of this race doesn't injure more fans.

Maybe yesterday's wreck will cause NASCAR to finally seriously look at altering these tracks so the cars can race there without restrictor plates. The only real choice is to lower the banking at Daytona and Talladega. That will cause a lot of whining with the fans but if you lower the banking enough at these tracks and keep the top speeds under 210 then you will have a field more spread out and you won't have last lap carnage and fan injuries which is what we have now.

I know NASCAR representatives and race announcers (sometimes the same thing) are going to talk about how this wreck was a rarity. That is bull. After Dale Earnhardt died the Charlotte Observer published an investigative piece on deaths at racetracks around the country and it was sobering. There is no such thing as a freak accident or an accident that could never have been predicted. NASCAR knows that big packs at high speeds cause cars to fly into the fences. A similar wreck took place in 1996 at Talladega. NASCAR knows this is dangerous. They've done nothing to really address this issue. They are fully responsible through their neglect for the fan injuries yesterday. They need to fix this.

There are a couple of fan videos of the wreck. These views from the stands are incredible and terrifying.

This guy was sitting a few seats over from where the tire landed. Kudos to the fan who takes his shirt off and tends to the inured person.


This is a shot closer to turn 4. You can see the tire fly off.


This is from higher up but the car hits the fence right in front of you. Terrifying. This video shows really well how much distance these cars cover during the wreck.


A view from the infield

Two Beautiful Women

I was really struck by the beauty of these two women. (Totally safe for work)