Surfing

Sammy is coming!

For the first time in ages, I did a bit of blog surfing yesterday via blogspot.com. A few of the blogs I have been reading for years have fallen by the wayside for one reason or another and I needed new ones to fill my reading time. For sure there are a lot of people like myself out there who have little to say but insist on saying it anyway and if you hop around in their stuff for a few minutes, you can find some items which will make you laugh, cause you to be sad, but overall, be glad you found their blog.

Mit Romney sucked out a win in his home state's Republican Primary last night. The only group he had a solid win with was those making more than $100,000 income. As bad as he is, and he is very, very bad, he is better than Rick Santorum who wears Jesus like an Easter suit, and better than Newt Gingrich who has zero credibility outside the 'good ol' boy' deep south. I wonder what Gingrich thinks about women's rights to live a healthy life? Newt and I both are hypocrites but we are comfortable with it; he is happy knowing he will go to heaven and I'm happy knowing I will not go there.

I am now down to 254 lbs (115 kg); probably been a decade since I was this petite.

Have good mid-week!

Steal Away

On FB today, Cyrus Khamak of Megashot.net posted a link to a Firefox plugin which will search the web for your stolen photos. Out of curiosity, I did a search on about 20 of my photos and found that one of them had been twice stolen. Here are links to both sites and they are both blogspot blogs:

http://worldspacesatellites.blogspot.com/2011/06/nasa-spacecraft-gathering-data-on.html

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDTQjqkceAYSlTRAO0WwybIVTNx8yjjt4DNt21BVuirihkHiL1xzXfhK4_mTsdaI7I7D1TR6hBTfX37CIquMgIrxqXU11B__GpDY2IUl0VPdjvWzDpt4nl6n6jR1sk_hkPNQ19/s320/proto%252Bplanet.jpg&imgrefurl=http://satelitnubruk.blogspot.com/2011_06_01_archive.html&h=215&w=320&sz=29&tbnid=VopNOeYu60kX1M&tbnh=172&tbnw=256&zoom=1&sa=X&ei=5f1MT-DSF6Xf0QGA4fyFCA&ved=0CDMQ8g0&usg=__tlt0HWY8r_jAb75ntT0TyrGh1YU=

Have a Tuesday!

"100 Proof"

Hope y’all like Jeremy’s new video production. A story well told.

For the 187th year in a row, I did not watch the Oscar awards show.

Sammy will be with us again today.

Have a great Worshday!

Spokky

Jerry and Tabby (my youngest granddaughter) were over this morning. Carolyn had just left for work and didn’t get to visit with her.

Chris bought herself a car, a Ford Taurus. If I believed in such things, I would consider it a good sign because she was born under the Zodiac sign of Taurus the Bull. Sometimes she is bullheaded.

Carolyn is going to make American style goulash this afternoon after work. My mouth waters as I await. Maybe if I don’t pig out I will get a photo.

I am dieing to shoot something; I once more have the big Pentax beside me on the desk and I think I can hear it begging for exercise.
Wilbur and the mountains …. almost as good as sex as best as I can remember.

Have a good week, my friends.

Happy Birthday, Johnny

My Buddy ...

Ashley snapped this pic of my buddy on Friday evening.

Sitter

Sammy is on the way to baby sit me today.

Lyrics for A Whiter Shade Of Pale.

Have a fine weekend, all of you’uns!

Happy Birthday, Ashley!

Blog of the Day: http://heartandcraft.blogspot.com/ If you are interested in writing life stories about yourself, family, and friends, this is a good place to learn some of what it takes to do sensible work.

The sun was shining beautifully when I got up this morning, but now at 11:00am it is raining. Spring weather is so unsettled.

Casablanca is still my all-time favorite movie. The two main reasons are Humphrey Bogart and the film’s dialogue. Bogart was the face of toughness America needed during the latter years of The Great Depression and on through WW2. From “Play it Sam” to “Here’s looking at you, kid” and “… this looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship” there are enough memorable quotes in the flick to keep me smiling the day long.

Have a “here’s looking at you” Wednesday!

On the move

Supposed to be 72°F (22°C) Thursday, along with thunderstorms. Sounds right springy.

Carolyn has gone after Sammy; probably be his last day with us until Friday. He did some singing for us yesterday–I had Etta James music on the PC.

I suppose CNN and the remainder of the glory press are hoping someone else with charisma and publicity like Whitney Houston had will die; they made oodles of ad money off of her demise. Etta James died a week previous to Houston but it was hardly noticed by the glam news world. Let’s face it; Houston would have been another face in the music crowd if not for having such a fiery relationship with former hubby Bobby Brown. Rest in Peace, Etta James.

We are taking my office back to the bedroom Chris vacated. Her move back to Jonesborough is complete and Ashley and Sammy have moved to Johnson City. It’ll be nice to have an uncovered window to see out of again.

Holiday

Today’s holiday is celebrated as “President’s Day” which is actually incorrect; it is George Washington’s Birthday that Americans observe. Merchants are the ones who came up with the misnomer “President’s day”; it is supposedly easier to remember than the name of the Father of Our Country. Another holiday stolen and commercialized by rampant capitalism.

Carolyn is giving Sammy a bath and he is throwing a conniption fit. Good boy!

The U.S. and Great Britain are paying lip service to Iran by warning Israel they will be considered as naughty if they attack the Islamic Republic.

Have a good Worshday!

Fine dining

Carolyn drove me around the area yesterday; she wanted to visit an old hamburger joint–which is located in Bristol–from days of her youth. We rode around some and finally wound up at the Blue Circle drive-in restaurant. We both ordered burgers and I ordered french fries and she ordered onion rings to eat in the Escape and we waited and waited when finally a guy came out and told us they were out of french fries and would tater tots be ok. I agreed that they would be fine and we waited some more. Here came another guy telling us they were also out of onion rings and would tater-tots be all right for her. Or, we could wait some more because someone had gone to the grocery store to buy some to cook. We were hungry so Carolyn decided tater-tots would be good and we waited some more. Finally here came the first guy carrying our dinner and the cheeseburgers–although tasty–were very paltry in size and the tater-tots were the expected grease bombs. We ate and left there and Carolyn decided she wanted coffee and desert. We drove around some more and wound up in Johnson City at McDonald’s. She ordered us each a cup of coffee–mine with sugar and hers with cream–and two cherry pies. We got to the pay window and were told they were out of cherry pies but if we waited 15 minutes they would have some ready. We decided to take our coffee and leave. Both coffees had cream and neither had sugar. Carolyn had made up her mind she was going to have a cherry pie so we went to a convenience store, bought gasoline, and she went inside to get herself and me cherry pies. She came back out madder than a wet hen; they were out of fried cherry pies. I ended up with some powdered donuts and she had a cherry flavored Twinkie-like cake. We drove around some more, winding up the day back at home. As soon as we pulled into the driveway, My aunt and cousin came by and we visited until past five o’clock and Carolyn and I were both very tired by then.
It wasn’t a haute cuisine day, but it was fun overall; I was glad to get home and finally have a ham sandwich and a bag of chips. I hate to admit it, but it was the first time I had been out of the house since December 27. It felt good to get some air and see things other than my PC monitor and the four walls of home. I took the Pentax with me but found nil to shoot at. Spring was in the air yesterday but today we are supposed to have the first decent snow fall of the winter; figures.
My aunt submitted a story about her life to some publication which was putting together a book about growing up in East Tennessee hills. Damned if she didn’t get her story included in the book. Now I have to come up with $50 to get a copy; she told me she submitted a photo with me in it when I was small and it is also in the book. My entire family must be literary geniuses; I wonder where I went wrong?

Alternating

Not much happening today; I am on the Linux hard drive doing some updating. It is nice to compute using a quick, safe, and efficient operating system such as Linux Ubuntu. I run the 32 bit version here but my laptop has 64 bit and it is even faster. The newest incarnation of Microsoft Windows will be released later this year and it will be optimized for use on touch-screen devices such as smart phones and tablets; they are desperately trying to catch up with Mac and Linux. I am still hanging on with WinXP; new beta drivers from Nvidia seem to have cured many of the display and crashing problems.
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Alternate universes. Believe or don’t believe, Einstein’s theories not only allows for them but also predicts that they can and may exist. After 100 years of testing, his theories are still holding up. Mark’s latest accident is a good case of what could be in alternate universes. When there is a major, sudden change in the universe or even in our lives, a new universe may come into existence paralleling the old one. As time goes by, each will further evolve in its own way. Let us say that when Mark fell from the ladder, he was able to land in a way that did not break his leg, but just shook him up and made him careful around ladders. From that fall we would have a split universe, one with him as we know him now; a broken version of himself and another universe with him sore but no bad damage which we would not know about but our parallel selves living there would know. However, just about everything else he he knew from his past would be the same in both universes. At the moment of his impact, he could have broken his neck and died, thus causing another universe where we would be without our friend. In another scenario, maybe the ladder slipped and he did not fall; the rest of us would still be in that universe, too and we would probably never have heard anything about it. Of course we can go back to when Mark bought his house; so many things could have been different then and he may also live in a universe where he bought a different house, hit the lottery, became a bigamist, and moved to Cuba. Most of these parallel universe diverge and go their own way but sometimes, due to cosmic forces, they once again touch just for a moment and information is exchanged between them; there be monsters there!
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Have a great weekend.

Thoroughly Thursday

I got about five hours sleep last night and my eyes are not so bad today, but I will make this brief and rest them some more anyway. You are off the hook for at least another day on the Higgs Boson. It will give me time to find out what it is; I just like the name.

Carolyn has gone for her doctor checkup; the results of her mammogram should be ready.

It should be law that every elected politician be required to take a dose of castor oil each morning and have an enema each evening. They would maybe realize how taxpayers feel.

Have a decent Thursday!

Mid-week gleanings

To generate new tax revenue, American cities are turning more and more to annexing vacant property such as farmland. They receive a decent amount of money for the treasury without having to provide much in services. When the land is "improved" with more housing such as a subdivision, they really prosper via the collected taxes. A family's home should not be a money cow for municipalities.

Sammy was here yesterday and Carolyn has gone to get him again today. It is awesome to watch him grow from an infant into a little boy.

L.R. "office" as I write this blog

I may be moving my "office" back to where it was; I think Chris is moving back to her apartment. I will miss her; she is as quiet as a mouse but I can easily realize why she wants to have her own place.

Dry eye and allergies are ruining my day; I've had to hit Ctrl + three times just to be able to hazily see what I am writing. I had planned to pen my thoughts about the search for the Higgs Boson or maybe my take on the theory of Alternate Universes. Oh yes; I do think about such things. In fact, I try, in my mind, to put myself in their shoes, so to speak. There isn't much in this universe that doesn't interest me to some degree. Well, Opera and Ballet are exceptions, however I once saw a topless ballet performance on television and I was quite inspired.

Have a grand ol' Wednesday!

♥My Valentine♥

Valentine’s music from my generation

Have you ...

Have you ever sneezed with a mouthful of milk and Raisin Bran cereal and couldn't cover your mouth in time? It'll take Carolyn an hour to clean up my mess.
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Have you seen the 1997 movie L.A. Confidential? Netflix is not streaming it but it is on DVD. Lots of good acting from lots of good actors. Good directing and story, too.
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Have you ever had dry eye?  Mine has been exceptional all weekend and on top of normal allergies and getting over a cold.
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Have you a good Worshday? I hope so.
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Happiness

Happiness is a stuffed puppy ...

Lovin'

St. Valentine’s Day is near so here is some lovin’ soul from Stevie Wonder.

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Only Robinson Crusoe had everything done by Friday

Have a Great Weekend

Blog Naked

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Homo Contineo in my mirror

Better think twice before “unfriending” someone from your Facebook page.
Facebook has become a way of life for many people; in fact it has become their entire life and religion. Folks get up each morning, rush to the PC and check their FB page before they even go to the bathroom. When they leave the PC, they have an iPad or iPhone or similar devices with them so they can stay “in touch” with their “friends” around the world. Quality time on the toilet has decayed from newspaper reading to become a time to see who is gossiping about whom.
Before we became humans and “civilized”, we swung around in trees all day long, eating, quarreling, having sex, and scratching our genitals. For millions of years we evolved to become the dominant species on Earth—homo sapiens—only to now begin evolving into a new species of enlightened ape-men. We are becoming homo contineo* (Latin: connected man). Maybe we are not evolving; perhaps we are devolving to the point where we need only to stay in our tree house all day while we virtually connect with millions of other tree dwellers, eating when we have pressing need to do so, quarreling with other apes we have never met face to face, virtual flirting, and scratching our itchy genitals because we cannot become disconnected long enough to bathe.
Well, we are what we are, and all we can do is pray to the gods of electrons that the electricity doesn’t go off even for a minute. Some people Facebook and some people, like myself, blog, and I am personally lost in the ether’s nether-world when I cannot connect. I too have become a homo contineo troglodyte; I am the connected, living machine.
*Have I coined a new phrase?
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Have a connected Thursday, my friends.
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Morning things

Spring colors

dddddddd   ;;;rrrrsss;;;;;;;plm nb
Sammy was on my lap and wanted to do the first entry for today’s blog. I think it says “good morning my blog friends”.
I have been trying to teach him to change his own diaper; at seven moths old, it should be a simple task for him but he is refusing to do it. I think he knows how but is being plain stubborn.
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I got up yesterday morning and my wi-fi did not work but I was fairly busy with tax stuff and did not mess with it, hoping the same gremlin who hacked it would miraculously repair it before today. However, I had to get up this morning and work on it; finally getting it back on the Droid but I have yet to attempt the laptop.
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I planned to make a photo of our first blooming daffodil this morning, but after getting the Pentax out of the drawer, I found its batteries were dead. It was the first time I’d attempted to use it since mid-November. Carolyn had to go to the store for bread and on to pick up Sammy, so she bought a pack of AA’s for me. I shot the above photo from my bathroom window; yep, I can still multitask.

God Bless Disco!

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Have a good Wednesday!

Knock-knock

I just realized something: I am the oldest living male in my family. Goes to show the longevity of my immediate ancestors is near the bottom of the national average. I have two aunts older than I, one on each side of the family. Actually, my inner self feels about forty-ish even though the calendar says I am 67. Knocking on heaven's door?  Not unless heaven consists of all the good memories I have stored away. I am forever opening dusty boxes of recollections in my mind's attic, a place where the light is sometimes poor and the memories are often dimmed by shades of time. I like my paradise.
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"Love, and then do what you will."
~ St Augustine as quoted by John Howard Griffin in Black Like Me
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Have a Tuesday!
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“But whenever Monday comes …”

The Super bowl was dull for the most part. Used to be you could expect one decently entertaining commercial during the big money event, but even ad agencies were far less than stellar in their promotions.
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Has anyone seen Mel Gibson’s movie Apocalypto? I put off watching the flick for many years because of Gibson’s highly publicized religious slurs. I watched it via Netflix streaming and found it to be a pretty good movie, well made and well acted. If you don’t care for graphic violence against animals and humans, you should probably refrain from seeing this film. This trailer is the least disturbing of the ones I found online.
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Sammy was here Saturday and again Sunday; he was fine and happy the first day but yesterday he was feeling badly. He will be back today.
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I have my first bad winter cold of the season. Phooey!
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Thanks to Tammy for the Woody Harrelson video; he is one of my favorite actors and is also cool as they come.
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Have a gallant Worshday!
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Grits and tits

There are a lot more birds at the feeders here than there were at the old place; probably not as many people have feeders out in this countryside. Or maybe the birds like to watch trains go by while dining. I haven’t seen so many chickadees and tits in one place.
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Carolyn has gone for her mammogram, or, as she calls it,  “to get my titties squeezed”. Must be very uncomfortable to have done; I’m glad men don’t have to get testicle-ograms.
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We have a new alarm clock; a peckerwood has been waking us for the past week at around 7:30am by drumming on the side of the house. If I was a homeowner, I would be perturbed by the potential damage that could be done by the love seeking critter, but as a renter, I find it amusing.
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U.S. unemployment rate is dropping; many desperate white folk are happy to get the minimum wage sweatshop jobs which they used to think were for Blacks and Mexicans. My country ’tis of thee …
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Have a helluva wicked weekend!
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Thursday nonsense

There are apps for smartphone such as the iPhone and Androids which will read bar codes on products plus they will decipher the new QR codes like the one above. Install the app on the phone from the App Store and it will use your phone camera to read the codes. For bar codes, it will give you the product name, suggested retail price, and offer a link to search for local stores which carry the item, along with the price. The QR codes are read the same way and you can do a google search for sites that generate them. The above code should link to my Megashot profile. Yes, I know it is ugly but it is only one of the ways people are using to try to protect their photos from theft. Ladies can have vital measurements or their FB page address imprinted on a tee shirt in QR code; share the joy.
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I believe Egyptians have jumped from the frying pan and into the fire; it seems that the ongoing military rule is going to be worse in the long run than was President watsisname.
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I bet the U.S. Department of War is in a tizzy wondering which country to attack next. Egypt, Syria, Venezuela, North Korea, Pakistan, Ukraine, or an encore into Iraq; maybe do a world tour and attack all of them and get more bang for our tax buck. Watch out Hungary; we have an eye on you, too.
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Have a spellbinding Thursday!
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In Dreams ... I walk like a man

Carolyn picked up the Escape; it was taken to a professional carpet cleaner and they still left glass on the floor.
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Why do people bother going to the polls to vote when the choices they are presented with have zero credibility in their own party? Money talks and money listens.
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Tomorrow would have been my dad's 91st birthday. Friday would have been my uncle Roy's 91st birthday. If you read my stories, you will find Roy--or his persona--somewhere in most of them. When I was a small boy, Roy and his brother, uncle Fred were always around; my dad was working in Detroit and I didn't see him often. Roy and Fred became my substitute dads and mentors. Roy was street smart and wise in the ways of men and women; Fred was quietly an artist and a man of Nature. Roy taught me to play cards; Fred taught me the ways of bees and trees. Roy was an extrovert; Fred was an introvert. Those two good men, my mother, my grandmother, and in some ways my dad in later years, made me who and what I am today.
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Have a splendiferous Wednesday!
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