The proprietor in his birthday suit, celebrating the start of the Snooze's third year.
I say ... and you think ... ?
Risks:: rewards
Abdominal:: cramps
Radiant:: bride
The usual:: breakfast
Mix and match:: K-Mart
Wireless:: radio
Remedial:: reading
Mile:: post
Long lost::friends
Only one:: Doritos
Every endeavor has its risks and rewards. Some, like a pie contest, may bring riches; then again, it may bring abdominal cramps. Much as the radiant bride on her way to the altar thinks of innocuous things to preclude tears, such as what she had that morning for breakfast, the usual toast, coffee and juice. As opposed to the bridesmaids, pregnant as gooses and standing all in a row, wondering why the bride has chosen to feature these hideous dresses from K-Mart (little knowing the bride got a special mix and match deal for screwing the manager).
Here's something I discovered while doing a remedial reading assignment. Little did Marconi and Tesla know, back in the fledgling days of the wireless radio, that advertising would come to dominate the medium of their creation, that 2005 would see the advertising industry reach a mile post of 7 trillions of dollars spent on advertising on radio and television since its inception in 1903. But then again, where would we be without such long lost friends as “his Master's voice,” “where's the beef,” or Jay Leno's famous line for Doritos, “bet you can't eat only one...”
Get your own list of words from that classy chica over at La Luna Niña. You'll be glad you did.
You Are a Capitalist Republican |
 Money makes your world go round - and it's no surprise that you always vote your wallet. You're financially successful (or plan to be), and your agenda is low tax and pro business. You don't get fired up about abortion... but mention capital gains tax, and you go crazy. You want government to be as small as possible - and to stay out of the way of business. |
1. What was your favorite childhood movie? When was the last time you saw it?
Old Yeller,” last viewed 4 or 5 years ago on cable. Not as good as I remembered it.
2. Who is your worst enemy at the moment? (First names only, please.) Why is that person your enemy?
No one comes to mind as a personal enemy, as opposed to enemies of the state, terrorists, Christians, Jews, Muslims, etc. Another way of looking at it is that my worst enemy at this time is myself, for all the usual reasons.
3. Which one of the following annoys you most when you encounter a new blog?
a. Constant grammatical errors.
b. Constant spelling errors.
c. Contrived "street" language.
d. Too many "nothing happening today" entries.
4. Take this quiz: Which alcoholic drink are you?
Odd. My favorite drink, when I was drinking, was Bourbon on the rocks. Not really a "cocktail"; I'm a wallflower at parties, I'm an old curmudgeon without a heart and can't be trusted as far as you can throw me (eat your Wheaties - I weigh 20 stone).
5. What is the last thing you said to a person face to face? Who was that person?
Goodnight. To my wife.
6. READER'S CHOICE QUESTION #59 from Debi: When you shower, do you ever think of the Alfred Hitchcock movie, "Psycho?"
No. Sometimes, when I am swimming in the ocean, I think of Jaws.
Born to stepson Danial and his covivant, Angela, twin girls, on July 29, 2005.
Blog fuhrer, Johann Sebastien Scalzi offers the following as the requirements for the new millennium, er,Weekend Assignment #70: Books for a Trip "You know, something to keep me from banging my head against the plane wall as I'm bored out of my skull at 36,000 feet above the chilly North Atlantic. I'm open to fiction and non-fiction, and I like to read from all genres. I don't mind something challenging, but this should be a book for enjoyment; I'm not planning to study for a test or anything. Please don't recommend a book that's sold over, say, 5 million copies, because that's waaaay too easy. So no Harry Potters or DaVinci Codes or the Five People You Meet in Heaven or most primary religious texts or stuff like that. You know what I'm talking about, here."
"Extra Credit: If you have any special tips or techniques you used for dealing with long trips, I'd love to hear them."
Dear John,
I do hope that all is well in Scalziland – there's been too few entries devoted to your lovely wife lately. Do give her our best. And isn't Athena sprouting like a weed? She's going to be a heart breaker when she gets older, no doubt about it.
I envy you the time and resources that allow you to go off to Worldcon. Oh, to be young and solvent once again. Back in the day, I did a fair amount of traveling hither and yon (don't screw around in yon, by the way – it's a hanging offense). In addition, many years ago I injured my back, crushing a disk. So sitting still on an airplane or in a train becomes excruciating for me very quickly. Add the prospect of jet lag and a Rembrandt just doesn't appear, you know? So, I used to drink myself into oblivion but these days they throw Johnny from the plane without a parachute if one gives so much as the appearance you are having fun, let alone are actually inebriated. I can't in good conscience recommend that as a proper course of action. Instead, I'll suggest you indulge in a couple of guilty pleasures... Charlaine Harris and Keith Laumer.
It used to be one could wander freely without incurring the enmity of one's fellow passengers. Since the destruction of the World Trade Center and part of the Pentagon, moving about on a flight is likely to get one a plastic dinner “spork” up the bum if one isn't careful. Or a stopover in Bangor, Maine, where the police and FBI frog march one's arse off the plane at gunpoint to the cheers of your “fellow passengers.” Neither a pleasant way to spend a vacation. Not the kind of exercise recommended for avoidance of DVT's, either (Deep vein thrombi (thromboses?).
Nowadays, I make a lot of trips to the loo. These are legitimate trips and not just for exercise as I take lots of HCTZ to prevent me from blowing up into a balloon of retained fluid. The only good thing about diuretics is the absence of blockages by kidney stones. While in the head, I do stretches. I lean on bulkheads. I go up to the bulkhead with the magazine racks and do mini-pushoffs to circulate blood to the thoracic region. So I usually request an aisle seat, despite my preference for looking out the window at the fire on the wing after the lightning strike (such pretty colors as the metals burn). That means I fidget even more, trying to find a comfortable position. Drives the others in the row nuts. But, it also means that I can stretch out momentarily into the aisle, I get to legitimately get up and down multiple times to let others in and out and I get easy access to the head because the need WILL arise, unlike the South (heheheh).
All of which probably goes into the TMI file. But there's a method to my madness. Or a point, at least. I bring trade paperbacks that have print large enough to see without holding the bloody book six inches from my nose, they fit in the pocket of my blazer or jacket, they are too big to be mistaken for a gun bulge because they peek out of the top of the pocket, rather than lurk at the bottom. They are lighter. They cost less, so loss is annoying, not ANNOYING. And I can bring two, if I'm flying more than a few hours away. I read in the loo. I read while standing up, stretching my back and upper hind legs.
The Charlaine Harris oeuvre I prefer is her Sookie Stackhouse (Southern Vampire) series. Wait! Don't go off like that, boy. Listen to your elders just a gol darn minute! This stuff is funny. She builds fun characters and puts them into amusing situations and lets them run amok, more or less than real life, depending on how vibrant your life truly is. Start off with the first in the series Dead Until Dark – you'll have it finished in three hours, four if they interrupt you with a meal (you did remember to only bring packaged goodies in your carry on – candy bars and the like, right?) Pick up the second one, Living Dead In Dallas for the trip back, assuming you aren't so inebriated or so badly hung over that you can't read...
Restless after eating, exercising, stretching and reading? Seen all the movies? Tired of listening to your Ipod and the screams of the two year old three rows back? That hacking cough of the 300 pounder beside you got you worried (probably me hacking up a cancerous lung)? Then it's time to switch from “Coldplay” and “There Be Giants” or whatever crap you've been listening to (just kidding – put down the knife), switch down to the Mozart and Chopin, and crack open Keith Laumer: The Lighter Side.
Eric Flint has compiled a marvelous collection of short stories from Laumer's most prolific period and all of the stories are unaffected by the extreme anger and bitterness that overtook Keith after his stroke in 1971. I think you'll find them just the ticket to awake the wonder within, while easing the aches and pains of one Scotch too many from the night before...
You be good now. Remember you are there for business, not pleasure. And for land's sake, don't get caught!
wil
| You Are an Indie Rocker! |
 You are in it for the love of the music... And you couldn't care less about being signed by a big label. You're all about loving and supporting music - not commercial success. You may not have the fame and glory, but you have complete control of your career. |
Week 129
Words posted 15 hours, 14 minutes agoI say ... and you think ... ?
Get your own copy of the week's word list and post a link to your perturbations at La Luna Niña. That pain between your shoulder blades will just up and disappear when you do...
1. Who was your first best friend? How old were you when you two met? Are you still in regular contact with each other?
A kid up on the farm we lived on was my first best friend. I was 6 and he was 5 when we met. He died in a tractor accident at the age of 18.
2. Other than the "Saturday Six," what weekly or daily memes do you play most often? (Please give a link to that journal.)
Unconcious Mutterings, Sunday Brunch, Monday Madness and the Weekend Assignment are the memes I do routinely. The editor I'm using will not let me do a sequence of URL's separated by commas, so scroll down for the links.
3. Which of the following likely has the bigger mess underneath it: your stove, your refrigerator, your couch or your bed? The couch.
4. Take this quiz: How long does MSN think you'll live? Then take this one: How long does Blogthings think you'll live? 57/61
5. Do either or both of these motivate you to make any changes in your lifestyle? No. I expected to be dead 5 years ago. Every extra day I have is a bonus.
6. Name five things you would like to do by December 31, 2005. Read the Harry Potter books, go kayaking, go camping, get our wills in order & get this year's bills paid off.
Get your own questions and leave a link t your answers over at Patrick's Place. You'll be glad you did and Patrick gives Green Stamps®!!!
A pastor concluded that his church was getting into serious financial troubles.
While checking the church storeroom, he discovered several cartons of new bibles that had never been opened and distributed.
So at his Sunday sermon, he asked for three volunteers from the congregation who would be willing to sell the bibles door-to-door for $10 each to raise the desperately needed money for the church. Peter, Paul, and Louie all raised their hands to volunteer for the task.
The minister knew that Peter and Paul earned their living as salesmen and were likely capable of selling some bibles. But he had serious doubts about Louie who was a local farmer, who had always kept to himself because he was embarrassed by his speech impediment.
Poor Louis stuttered badly. But, not wanting to discourage Louis, the minister decided to let him try anyway.
He sent the three of them away with the back seat of their cars stacked with bibles and asked them to meet with him and report the results of their door-to-door selling efforts the following Sunday.
Eager to find out how successful they were, the minister immediately asked Peter, "Well, Peter, how did you make out selling our bibles last week?"
Proudly handing the reverend an envelope, Peter replied, "Using my sales prowess, I was able to sell 20 bibles, and here's the $200 I collected on behalf of the church."
"Fine job, Peter!" The minister said, vigorously shaking his hand. "You are indeed a fine salesman and the Church is indebted to you."
Turning to Paul, "And Paul, how many bibles did you sell for the church last week?"
Paul, smiling and sticking out his chest, confidently replied, "I am a professional salesman. I sold 28 bibles on behalf of the church, and here's $280 I collected."
The minister responded, "That's absolutely splendid, Paul. You are truly a professional salesman and the church is also indebted to you."
Apprehensively, the minister turned to Louie and said, "And Louie, did you manage to sell any bibles last week?"
Louie silently offered the minister a large envelope. The reverend opened it and counted the contents. "What is this?" the minister exclaimed. "Louie, there's $3200 in here! Are you suggesting that you sold 320 bibles for the church, door to door, in just one week? Louie just nodded.
"That's impossible!" both Peter and Paul said in unison. "We are professional salesmen, yet you claim to have sold 10 times as many bibles as we could." "Yes, this does seem unlikely," the minister agreed. "I think you'd better explain how you managed to accomplish this, Louie."
Louie shrugged. "I-I-I re-re-really do-do-don't kn-kn-know f-f-f-for sh-sh-sh-sure," he stammered.
Impatiently, Peter interrupted. "For crying out loud, Louie, just tell us what you said to them when they answered the door!"
"A-a-a-all I-I-I s-s-said wa-wa-was," Louis replied, "W-w-w-w-would y-y-y-you l-l-l-l-l-like t-t-to b-b-b-buy th-th-th-this b-b-b-b-bible f-f-for t-t-ten b-b-b-bucks -- o-o-o-or -- wo-wo-would yo-you j-j-j-just l-like m-m-me t-t-to st-st-stand h-h-here and r-r-r-r-r-read it t-t-t-to y-y-you??"
Music- Burton Lane
Lyrics and Book- Alan Jay Lerner
On a clear dayIt appears that Senator Orrin Hatch has fallen off the diving board into the deep end of the pool. He has publicly compared Judge John Roberts, Bush's nominee to the Supreme Court, to Jesus Christ, putative Son of God.
Don't take my word for it – I got it from the Daily Kos:
“Orrin Hatch compares Roberts to, um, Jesus, and urges the nominee to refuse answers to any questions. No link to the transcript from Hatch's Fox News Channel appearance yesterday:
“I think senators can ask any questions they want. I've said, no matter how dumb the question may be. But the, the nominee doesn't have to answer them and he should not, under the canons of judicial ethics, he should not answer questions on any issue that possibly would come before the Supreme Court. Otherwise, he would be foretelling how he would vote on those issues and then they would hold that against him. So it's a little bit like Biblical Pharisees, you know, who basically are always trying to undermine Jesus Christ, you know, it goes on the same way. If they can catch him in something, they can then criticize -- and the outside groups will go berserk. And that's that what drives the People for the American Way, the Alliance for Justice, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. They're against any Republican. We knew that just no matter who it was -- it could be the greatest person in the world, and Roberts is, is that -- they would come out against him.”
Republicans are really afraid of airing Roberts' views on the issues. Really, really, afraid.”
Now, now, we all know that Orrin Hatch has been a loose cannon as a senator and has always been a bottle short of a six pack, what with coming from Utah and all...
From the Wikipedia entry on Senator Hatch:
“He and his family are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” He almost single-handedly caused the rollback of the anti-discrimination provisions of the Fair Housing Act. He was the cause of that tempest in a teapot in 2003 when he suggested “that copyright owners should be able to destroy the computer equipment and information of those suspected of copyright infringement, including file sharing.”
Not surprisingly, he was accused of software piracy in a Wired article entitled “Orrin Hatch, Software Pirate?” shortly thereafter...
So why should he stop being a loony now?
It's just he's getting really close to a visit from the either Jacob Marley or the Holy Ghost if he keeps this nonsense up, you know?
In the growing fear and anger at what more may be to come, apologists or explainers for these young men can expect short shrift. This is not about poverty, deprivation or cultural dislocation of second-generation immigrants. There is plenty of that and it is passive. Iraq is the immediate trigger, but this is about religious delusion.
All religions are prone to it, given the right circumstances. How could those who preach the absolute revealed truth of every word of a primitive book not be prone to insanity?
...
All the state can do is hold on to secular values. It can encourage the moderate but it must not appease religion. The constitutional absurdity of an established church once seemed an irrelevance, but now it obliges similar privileges to all other faiths. There is still time - it may take a nonreligious leader - to stop this madness and separate the state and its schools from all religion. It won't stop the bombing now but at least it would not encourage continued school segregation for generations to come. And it might clear the air of the clouds of hypocrisy, twisted thinking and circumlocution whenever a politician mentions religion.
I never thought I'd find myself saying this. It's just so out of character, you know? I'm embarrassed to even admit it. I read the New York Times online on occasion. There, I said it and lightning didn't strike me or my computer dead. Whew!
I was looking for some information and saw a reference to an article in passing on another blog, so I logged in to the NY Times (registration required – it's free). This time, I wanted some background on John G. Roberts, Dubya's nominee to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court of the United States.
So I logged on and immediately found this article detailing the Judge's family, education and work history along with numerous quotes from friends, colleagues and even a foe or two. What surprised me the most was the even-handed reporting. This isn't the strident hatchet job one has come to expect from the NYT. I highly recommend the article to you, even if you consider yourself, as I do, somewhere to the right of Atilla the Hun.
I came away feeling like I can support this man, even though we disagree violently on matters of religion and separation of church and state. If those left-wing liberal lug nuts at the Times are to be believed, he's an old school conservative with none of the neo-con, lunatic fringe religious nut about him. Yes, his Catholic upbringing and demonstrably continuing deeply held faith will (obviously) influence his personal feelings about abortion. Having read this article, I am not convinced that Roe v. Wade will be the litmus test that so many fear or hope it will be for Judge Roberts. I can see him rendering opinions that clash with his personal, deeply held religious views. Not gladly, but with a deeply held respect for the law and our Constitution.
Isn't that all we can ever ask of a nominee to the Supreme Court?
| John Scalzi, AOL Blogfather and hot fudge dipstick was overheard to underhandedly mutter: “It's been so argin'-fargin' hot around here recently that I thought a frosty cool Weekend Assignment might help out:
|
Memoirs From The Ice Cream War
Howdy folks, Jerry Garcia here. No, not the Dead Head. Although, he was a cousin of mine, twice removed. Seems my Aunt Mabel was seeing this Rabbi on the side and...
Oops, getting off the subject of this week's assignment – ice cream flavors I have created. As an internationally known terrorist, er, uh, ice cream raccoon tour, impressive barrio, um, creator, I have had my share of successors, er, successes! Chunky Monkey, Juicy Lucy, Little Richard, Who-put-the-bop-in-the-mop, Chubby Hubby ... well, you get the idea.
But did you hear about my latest creation -- Ben & Jerry's newest flavor is politically incorrect, in a cute, anti-UN kind of way: Strawberry Land Mines – Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream with strawberry nuggets dipped in hot fudge and cashew pieces. It takes off like a native sitting on a Claymore! Heheheh
Rival Breyers came out with Tank Turds, chocolate ice cream with chocolate covered cherries rolled in peanuts. Militant copycat a$$e$!
Not to be outdone here in Maine, Gifford's has countered with Maine Deer Sign: a rich coffee ice cream laced with Heath Bar Candy Bars with thick fudge ripple throughout.
Now, not every new flavor I come up with is a hit. I've had my share of failures. My biggest flop while with Kraft General Food's Sealtest Division was the infamous Sticks 'n' Stones – creamy green tea ice cream with real sticks, (twigs, actually, from Ceylonese green tea plants) and Pop Rocks™ cola-flavored candies. That went over like a turd in a punch bowl on New Year's Eve. Seems that when you freeze Pop Rocks™ they turn as hard as a rock! Chomp down on one and it's a guaranteed trip to the dentist. By the time the lawyers got done with us, the only flavor I could sell the marketplace was Sealtest Fish Sticks – frozen mackerel on a stick intended for walrus trainers above the Arctic Circle to keep their fingers from freezing to the fish!
Well, that's the story of my success as an ice cream saboteur, er, entrepreneur. Keep your stick on the ice and the puck ... where it belongs.
“…when you cry out on the Black Man from Boston, you wake Nicholas Scratch, and he will surely come to call on you.”-Liz Marcs
Senator Santorum, the junior Republican senator from Pennsylvania and 2008 presidential hopeful, is at it again. This time he is calling for the "new evangelization" of the Catholic Church, a la Vatican II. Having seen first hand the atrocities perpetrated around the world by the Catholic Church, it is with a shudder that I contemplate any more active role by the Church in daily affairs of the citizens of this country.
But don't take my paltry word for it. Read Santorum's ridiculous call for the laity to oversee all activities of the Church in America in his July 12 Catholic Online op-ed piece “Fishers of Men.” Then read this literary counterpoint by Liz Marcs in her LiveJournal entry “When You Wake The Black Man from Boston, Nicholas Scratch Will Surely Come To Call.” It's an eye-opener, lyrically phrased.
If you have forgotten the tale behind the references, swing by and read an online copy of the Steven Vincent Benet short story “The Devil and Danial Webster,” just to trigger your synapses.
Via [Teresa Nielsen Hayden]: Have a Salem?
Pharyngula said it all:
"Rubber Johnny
Don't watch this disturbing work of perverse genius
( http://www.wimp.com/rubberjohnny/ ) if you are creeped out by deformity. It probably says something about me that I thought it was fascinating.(via The Apostropher)"
Literature encourages tolerance - bigots and fanatics seldom have any use for the arts, because they're so preoccupied with their beliefs and actions that they can't see them also as possibilities. - Northrop Frye, writer(1912-1991)
Unconcious Mutterings
I say ... and you think ... ?
Tolerate:: bigot
Release:: mold
My soul:: Aretha Franklin
Sax:: Tenor
HP:: Hewlett-Packard
Worth:: Net
Rockstar:: Mick Jagger
Terrify:: Al Queda
Knock me off my feet:: BB King
Taunt:: Tease
Get your own list of words each week and leave a link to your answers at La Luna Niña.
Found this over at Paul Little's Aurora Walking Vacation. He'd stolen it from Skatje.
1. Take the lyrics to a favorite song.
2. Go to Google Language Tools, tranlate the lyrics into German, then from German to French, and finally from French back into English.
3. Post the results verbatim.
4. Invite friends to guess the song based on the interesting new lyrics.
Where all the flowers did disappear to be enough the time which occurs where all has goings flowers? Long time one is enough time, when it had had all goings flowers? Did the girls each one when choose it it always learn? When they will always learn? Where did they go all the girls? To be enough the time which occurs where has all the young people goings girls? Long time one is enough time, when all the young people had had goings girls? Taken to the Husbands each one when they always learn? When they will always learn? Where did they go all the young men? To be enough the time which occurs where has all the gone young men? Long time one is enough time, when it had had all the gone young men? Gone for the soldiers of each one when they apprennenttoujours? When they will always learn? Where did they go all the soldiers? To be enough the time which occurs where all has gone soldiers? Long time one is enough time, when it had had all the gone soldiers? Gone with the cemeteries of each one when they apprennenttoujours? When they will always learn? Where all the cemeteries did disappear? To be enough the time which occurs where all has gone cemeteries? Long time one is enough time, when it had had any gone cemeteries? Does each one place the adjustment with the flowers when always learns to us? When will we always learn?
No, French fries don't count...
Alrighty, then. Something French I appreciate. Hmmm. I was going to say Chopin until I discovered upon checking his biographical entry at Wikipedia that he was actually a transplanted Pole. Tricky fellows, the Polszka.
So then I thought about others and Erik Satie came to mind, as did the artists Cassatt, Monet, Manet and George Sands. Hmm, say I to meself, “I appreciate the Impressionists.”
''The Luncheon on the Grass''
oil on canvas, 208 × 265.5 cm
Now, explaining why is more problematical. Perhaps it's the thousands of dabs of paint that make up an image. The gentle, subtle shading, the play of light and shadow between dabs. Perhaps it was the audacity to take on the Establishment. I don't know that I can pin point why I like The Impressionists. I just do.
Of course, there's other things I appreciate about France. Even though it was a joint Franco-Anglais project, I loved the Concorde as flown byAir France. They had the most beautiful men and women on their crews. Far superior to British Airways crews – we used to get them both here and the crews tended to hang out in one of my favorite watering holes back in the day. Not to put too fine of a point on the matter, I love young French women. Bridgette Bardot. Oh my! Catherine Deneuve.
I loved the movie, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, when I was becoming a teen – it was the first subtitled film I ever saw and the fact it's “dialogue” is sung ... well, I was blown away.
There's a lot about the French and France I appreciate. There's a lot I don't. And so it goes...
Patrick has done it again. Here's the questions and there's my answers. You can play along, too. Just click on the link up there. Easy, huh?
1. What is the last thing you either camped out or got up unusually early to be able to buy?
I never have. However, I have worked in retail and been required to crawl out of bed at 4 AM in order for crazy folks to start shopping at 5:30 AM the day after Thanksgiving! Damn fools...
2. If you had to give up one of the following for a full year, which would be the easiest to do without? Which would be the most difficult to give up?
a) Your personal vehicle <<< Most Difficult to give up ( I'm too old and too fat to try to bicycle twelve miles (round trip) for groceries. Not to mention the one lung, the triple bypass and the asthma I already deal with.)
b) Your Telephone (both cellular and land line)
c) The Internet
d) Meat (all of it: Beef, Poultry, Pork and Seafood)
e) Television <<<>
3. How many items (include all bottles, boxes and containers) are in your medicine cabinet? 37 Which is the last one you used? Tweezers – I had a splinter in my foot on Friday evening.
4. What is the first source you go to for news of any kind when you wake up?
It's a toss-up between NPR and CNN Headline News. These days, it's easy to flip on the TV. When I worked, I avoided turning on the TV before work as I'd get sucked into the local news, so I relied on the radio in the bathroom as I got ready for work, then in the car during the commute.
How much do you trust that particular source? I trust NPR more than I do CNN – there isn't as much pressure to get the story out there without doing fact-checking at NPR. The most dishonest of the network tv news sources is Fox, lately followed by CBS, sad to say. It used to be that I could listen to the BBC radio news and I found their coverage of international issues to be the best on shortwave. Now I just read the International Herald Tribune online if I want coverage of foreign news. Ultimately, I trust no one to provide the whole story.
5. Take the Quiz: What do the letters of your name stand for?
O=Overwhelming, L=Lazy, D=Dignified, D=Dysfunctional, O=Overwhelming, G=Gorgeous, according to the quiz. I'll let you, Gentle Reader, determine for yourself just how “gorgeous” I am
6. What is your favorite color and why? If you have a journal or journals, is this color the primary one on those journals? If not, why not?
Blue. I'm not sure why, exactly. It just is the most pleasing to my eye. It is the accent color on my AOL journal while gray is the predominant color on the Blogger version. But I like lots of other colors besides blue.
Have a great weekend!Cheer up. Things could be worse.
So, I cheered up.
And sure enough, Things WERE worse.
SKOAL!
Dang, I almost missed it! To think I nearly passed up the opportunity to say:
SMILE!
IT MAKES PEOPLE WONDER WHAT YOU'VE BEEN UP TO...
I say ... and you think ... ?
Each week he sucks me in with the illusion of meaning. Each week, I succumb. Sad, ain't it?
Get your own copy of this week's questions and leave a link to your answers in the comments thread. Non-AOL users may comment via AIM.
Try to resist – I'll bet you can't do just one, Jay...
1. How many mirrors are there in your home? If you could go for the rest of your life without ever looking in a mirror (but still know that you hadn't missed a button or that your hair was disarrayed, etc.) would you?
Somewhere around 7 mirrors, by my count. None larger than the vanity mirror in the bathroom. And I'd gladly do without a mirror the remainder of my life -- I'm ugly enough that I spend as little time as possible in front of the looking glass as it is.
2. What online abbreviation annoys you the most and why?
OMFG
3. What do you hate the most in this world?
Stupidity
4. You decide to go to your next high school reunion. What do you anticipate would be the thing most people said about you behind your back?
My next reunion, if there is one, would be in 2008. It would be my 40th high school reunion and it is highly unlikely I'd attend. But if I did, the muttering would probably go something like this...
“Boy, has he gotten fat!”
“Yes he has, and what's with the pony tail? Ridiculous on a old phart nearly in his 60's!”
5. You learn that because of some galactic mix up in fate itself, you must restart your life tomorrow in a new place. You will emerge as a person with a unique past and won't seem out of the ordinary to those in the new place. You will retain the experiences and memories of your past, but the people you are closest to will believe that you are dead and gone and you would be prohibited from contacting them. Where would you go and why?
New Zealand. North Island. Work on a sheep station, up near Cape Palliser. Because the folks all speak (a form of) English, the climate is moderate without slighting the seasons, and it is similar to Maine but way too far away to be contacting anyone. As an employee of a sheep station, my income would be sufficient to sustain life, but insufficient to give into temptation to return to the former life I lead.
6. What are you most passionate about in this moment of your life and why?
Survival – because my continued survival and yours is continually threatened by outside forces which you have little to no control over.
...this enemy does want something specific: to take full control of your lives, dictate every single move you make round the clock and, if you dare resist, he will feel it his divine duty to kill you.
Weekend Assignment #67: Bad Movie Marathon! Share your favorite
bad film of all time. Tell us why you love it so.
Extra Credit: Your favorite quote from the aforementioned film.
Nah ...Mortal Kombat: Annihilation is a piece of dog turd wrapped in aluminum foil and passed off as hashish to an unsuspecting, indiscriminant viewing public. That they actually funded a sequel is mind-boggling.
The following inanity is indicative of the dearth of quality:
Shao Kahn: The Earth was created in six days; so too shall it be destroyed; and on the seventh day, mankind will rest... in peace!
It was the last time that young lady got to pick the movie...
Tomorrow’s news today: the advance transcript of Bush’s address to the nation on his nomination of Sandra Day O’Connor’s successor
My fellow Americans.
As you know, I have the honor and the privilege of nominating the next Justice of the Supreme Court. And as you know, I believe America deserves a good Justice, a wise Justice, a Justice who will interpret the Constitution faithfully. In making my decision, I have looked deep into my heart, and I have sought the counsel of wonder-working Providence. I appear before you tonight to share that decision with you.
When I first sought the office of the Presidency, I promised to be a uniter, not a divider. Since then, I have made every effort to unite this nation by purging it of Democrats. Together with my trusted aides and advisors, I have worked tirelessly to impugn the patriotism and question the integrity of anyone who’s voiced even the most timid criticism of my conduct as President. It hasn’t mattered whether my critics are decorated Vietnam vets, undercover intelligence agents, middle-aged elementary-school teachers, or Democratic Senators with weapon-grade anthrax in their mail—my administration and I have reached out across America to slime and to slander them. We’ve undertaken a great work in this great nation, and I know that many of you have dedicated yourselves to that work.
But a still greater work lies before us. The next Justice of the Supreme Court will very likely determine the direction of the Court for another generation, shaping our laws and our lives throughout the land. And I have decided that this is not a time to play games with the American people or score cheap political points. It is a time, instead, to heal the wounds I have inflicted, and repair some of the damage I have wrought.
Some of you may remember that Justice Sandra Day O’Connor put me in this office, by concurring with the Court’s argument that my Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection under the laws would be violated by a statewide recount of votes in Florida. For that decision, I will be forever grateful to Justice O’Connor. But I have never managed to shake the sense that there is a cloud over my Presidency, a taint of illegitimacy that touches everything I do and say. In the past, I’ve tried to compensate for that sense of illegitimacy by stocking my administration with cronies and sycophants, and by ensuring that whenever I appear in public I am surrounded by fanatical supporters who have signed written pledges and chanted oaths of fealty to me. I’ve even tried literally to buy a sense of legitimacy, by paying journalists directly to promote my policies and repeat my words as their own.
But I know I can’t get away with this kind of thing forever. My fellow Americans, under my blustering façade—yes, I’m familiar with the word “façade”—I am tormented by remorse and self-doubt. I know I’ve run the country into the ground financially, and though my friends and I will make out like bandits, just as we did with Arbusto and Harken, I know it’ll take you all at least another fifty years to clamber out of the hole I’ve dug for you. I know also that I’ve helped to make America a dirtier, more toxic place to live, and that I’ve treated our land, water, and air as if they were the private reserves of my oil buddies. I honestly don’t know any other way to govern. And as for Iraq, I confess to you tonight that I haven’t got the faintest clue what’s really going on in Iraq. I just hope that someone bails me out of that one, too.
Friends, neighbors, fellow citizens, I don’t want to be remembered as a man who used the office of the Presidency like some two-bit, tinhorn generalissimo. I want to be remembered as a good man who made some bad decisions early on, but who eventually saw the error of his ways and tried to walk in the light, with the help of Almighty God. I want to be remembered as a man who chose the path of righteousness, who moved to check the rabid political extremists of his own party and to advance the cause of social justice in America. I want my legacy to be a proud and honorable one, and I want my Presidency itself to be born again. And for that reason, my fellow Americans, I am nominating Lani Guinier to the Supreme Court of the United States.
May God bless you, and may God bless America.
via PharyngulaThe Associated Press
NEW YORK July 5, 2005 — Martha Stewart says in a new interview that her nickname in prison was M. Diddy, that house arrest is "hideous" and that her prosecution was about bringing her down "to scare other people."
| Which Beatles song personality are you? Mean Mister Mustard You hide money in your nose and yell obscenities at the queen. Such a dirty old man!
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Save the Planet
Kill
Yourself
Church
of Euthanasia
The One Commandment:
"Thou
shalt not procreate"
The Four Pillars:
suicide
· abortion
cannibalism
· sodomy
