MEME: Monday Music Mambo -- Let It Snow...

Rfduck, chief Drake at this here 'Monday Music Mambo' pond, lets fly a cold, wet one, thusly:

"Hello everyone! It's snowing where I live, so today's Mambo will be snow-themed."

1. They say every snowflake is unique. Name a musician who you think is unique and sounds like no one else.

Joe Cocker isn't going to EVER be mistaken for any one else when singing. There are some others that come close, but his unique combination of voice, inflection and phrasing makes a song his own.

2. Snowfall covers everything in sight. Tell us about a cover song you enjoy.

If you've read this blog any length of time, you should be able to predict these answers, ;) Make mine Suzanne, written by Leonard Cohen and covered by just about everybody at one time in their musical careers.

3. It snows a lot in Canada. Tell us your favorite Canadian musician.

My absolute favorite is the aforementioned Leonard Cohen, but Gordon Lightfoot and Joni Mitchell are tied for second place.

4. Watching the snow fall can be very peaceful. Name a song that brings you peace.

Lots of songs do, depending on my mood and blood pressure and glucose level...
How about Gordon Lightfoot's "Early Morning Rain"?

Speaking of rain, we've been having rainy weather here in Cajun Country, about 3" worth last week alone. The rivers, streams and bayous are all lush with moisture. There was a real toad-strangler on Saturday night that caused the horses to seek shelter next to the trailer in a little lean-to off the back of the shed where I park the "Busted Moose" at night. They were rather rambunctious in their enthusiasm to make life absolutely miserable for the usual occupant of the lean-to -- a big tom turkey the owner bought one year as a poult to fatten for Thanksgiving but then couldn't bear to kill. Seems his 60+ pound carcass was not appreciated underfoot by the horses, so they kicked at him and kicked until he lamely stood out in the rain. Poor old bird - he's all bruised up and was so bedraggled when I saw him Sunday...

I've been sick the past week with pinkeye and now what I suspect is strep throat. Damn snotty-nosed kids are walking Petri dishes and the cultures they're festering gore just love yours truly. I've been sicker since coming down here in November more than the past four years combined. To add insult to injury, the baby is over his pinkeye, while mine persists and we came down with it only a day apart.

There's been some cold weather, too, with snow falling over much of the northern half of Louisiana for a time last week. We had sleet one night here just as we were headed from the house to our trailer for the night. And we've been going through LP gas bottles at a steady clip. Fortunately, there's a good hardware store nearby that refills them.

My wife's work is decidedly unhappy that she needs more time to recover from what ails her and has put her on unpaid leave. Oh joy, we get to COBRA our health insurance for the next couple of months, to the tune of a couple of grand a month. Sadly, going without isn't an option, as I'd never be able to get full coverage insurance again, nor would she. Hell of a racket, the health industry and health insurance.

The repairs seem to be holding up, with a minor exception of a piece of trim that succumbed to the toe of my slipper the first night. Still too sick to pick up our stuff at the daughter's as her son had eye surgery in December and has a weakened immune system - so my approach with conjunctivitis onboard is a no-no. I'd really like to hit the road and see someplace that doesn't involve SNK's.* I'm tired of sitting in one place, dependent on family and subject to all these diseases.

Heard from the Pet Spa at home. The Cats are doing wonderfully, eating like the wee piglets they are and running up a tab that will require taking out a second mortgage when we get back. The phone at the house has gone berserk and is issuing a constant busy signal, but our neighbors assure us no one is at home.

Oh well, it still beats shoveling snow... Hope you enjoyed your snow, Russ.

SNK = Snotty-nosed kids

Monday Music Mambo -- Hug A Snake Day

RFDuck extracted his beak from his rain slicker long enough to mutter, " Sorry the mambo is up late! Today is National Hugging Day."

"Name three musicians you want to hug, and one you don't want to hug."

"That's all for today. Thanks for mamboing!"

1. Leonard Cohen - For the hours of pleasure he's given me (that sounds SO WRONG).
2. Bob Dylan -- For the years of listening pleasure he's given the denizens of this mud ball...
3. Melanie -- Just because she is.

And the anti-hug of the musical world -- Gene Simmons. The man's tongue just creeps me out.

Brrr.... It's Almost Cold (And the promised update)

Blew a gale here on Saturday morning. Picked up 2 1/2" of rain with the heavy winds. Interesting driving -- seems like it never occurred to the local road builders to crown the pavement sufficiently to allow drainage from the inevitable ruts created by the heavy traffic, particularly on the concrete roads so prevalent here. Some really impressive hydro-planing results. Fun ... not.

Cleared out about mid-morning and started getting colder. Hit a low of 29 overnight. Ground surface still too warm to freeze, but standing water puddles froze with skim ice - some Louisianians are now convinced that global warming is a myth cooked up by freezing Yankees to extract oil price concessions from Southern refineries. (Not so - we all want cheaper gas!)

Back up to the low 30's after the sun came up, but I'm sure the damage was done - muy mucho frozen and/or busted pipes. Stopped by the Flea Market of Louisiana (no link available) yesterday afternoon and the venders were absolutely miserable. We ended up having to put the kids back in the van after 20 minutes -- they were approaching hypothermia.

So far, the repairs are satisfactory, so I'd give the RV Service Center (new name on Jan. 1st - formerly Family RV Center, LLC) of Walker, Louisiana, a qualified 3 out of 5 stars. The repairs were performed in a workmanlike manner. They used factory manufactured parts whenever possible. The quality of the part(s) manufactured on-site is fair to good (they really aren't skilled cabinet makers). The negatives have to do with failed promises and unrealistic estimates of what the work entailed, resulting in having to request supplemental funds for the work done from the insurance company. (My cost remained the same. If there hadn't been an insurance company footing the bill, I suspect the results would not have been as satisfactory -- an additional 10 days and over a thousand dollars above the original estimate for nearly double the amount of labor originally estimated. And then there's the cost of motels for an additional 10 days over the original 4 working day estimate, some of which is attributable to weekends and sickness of the employee doing the cabinetry. Still, it means an additional grand in motel and food costs and the possible loss of my wife's job due to the likely miss of a mandatory return-to-work date. All collateral consequences of the delays in completion of the job.)

Meme: Unconcious Mutterings -- Week 259

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. President :: Lincoln (Nope, no idea why that popped into mind, either)
   
2. Stare :: Stony
   
3. Embrace :: hug
   
4. Movie :: Tears of the Sun (last night's DVD - after all, this is Country Music country...
   
5. Everything :: 50% off!
   
6. Profile :: like a brick outhouse...
   
7. Satire :: Jonathan Swift
   
8. Erratic :: driving
   
9. Costume :: Ball
   
10. Secretary :: ditto
    

Damned Yankees

Here's a forecast you don't see very often in Baton Rouge:






Today

Chance
Snow
Hi 46°F

Tonight


Mostly
Clear
Lo 27°F


Today: A 50 percent chance of snow showers before noon. Cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny, with a high near 46. North wind between 10 and 15 mph. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.

Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 27. North wind around 10 mph.


Can't blame me for bringing this with me, either -- I've been here for over two months!

Picked up the trailer on Thursday afternoon. Of course, the better half is getting sick again, so I've been doing all the packing and setting to rights. Repairs effected and complete. It survived the monsoon rains we got last night -- now let's see if they did the insulation right (heh, heh, heh - not likely. It's Louisiana after all -- they put their bloody pipes above ground, for Jack Frost's sake!).

Maybe, just maybe...

They called this morning. Supposedly, our Airstream is finished. Only a week longer than promised (par for the course down here, it seems).

We'll be leaving in a little while to pick it up. I'll let you know if the repairs are satisfactory.

Keep your toes and fingers crossed...

Go ahead - yank her chain once more -- I dare ya!

My wife is a short-tempered beast with all bureaucrats, ignoramii and anyone else who gets in her way of providing quality patient care. The rest of the time, she tries very hard to be even tempered, even when she is sorely tempted to rip someone's head off and stuff it down the gaping hole in their neck.


So, imagine the supreme restraint she has had to exhibit when dealing with the local board of nursing whose employees took a double dose of the dumbass and refused to cooperate with the simple task of renewing her license. Rather than treating her as inactive in the great state of Louisiana, they decided she has been delinquent since 2001!


OK - so after driving down to New Orleans to the board, she is then informed that only a certified copy of our marriage certificate will be sufficient evidence to change the last name on her Louisiana nurses license to her current name. Only problem involved is the amount of time needed to acquire said marriage certificate. Go through Maine's vital records and it'll take 7 to 10 business days after receipt of payment. Maine doesn't fax copies of vital records -- only originals are acceptable. And so it goes.

Keep an eye on the news. If you hear of a crazed nurse taking out the security windows at the Louisiana Board of Nursing, you'll know why...

We don't need no steenkin wires...

Heard from the repair shop yesterday (original estimated completion date). Seems it is taking a lot longer than anticipated. May be Friday or early next week, now. Living out of motels is getting very old and very expensive. I miss my tin can home, alot...

Took much longer to remove the inner fender than expected. I suspect they have tried to do it without completely removing the galley cabinets and sink, which would be an enormous waste of time. Then comes the clincher. The long wires that were ripped out were indeed the power supply and neutral to the second double pole-double throw switch that controls the water pump. Seems that when manufactured, Airstream installed that long wiring run before they installed the outer skin. Replacing it would entail removing said outer skin and destruction of the factory watertight seals - not a good thing. Compromise was necessary. Have agreed to abandon the double switch circuit for a small bezel and lighted switch below the hanging locker door that might be reachable while seated on the throne with your toe...

Off to New Orleans, now that all the BCS championship crazies have left town and freed up some motel rooms. We spent the past weekend on the Gulf of Mexico in the Pass Christian, Bay St. Louis, Gulfport, Biloxi, Ocean Shores, area that was so badly devastated by Katrina. It is changed forever. Gone are the honky-tonks, restaurants, souvenir shops, motels, rental houses, and the easy-going, beach culture. It's as though the heart has been torn right out of the region. The US and state governments have been extremely slow releasing disaster recovery funds. Insurance companies have weaseled out of paying for any damage to structures located within 3 or 4 blocks of the beach, claiming it was all wave action, rather than winds, that destroyed the buildings. Thousands have been bankrupted and left homeless as a result. We're not talking about the hoodlums and hoi poloi of the Ninth District in New Orleans that were flooded out when the levees broke. Nope, we're talking whole families, business owners and operators, whole beach communities and the infrastructure along the beach. Here and there, a travel trailer is setup, laying claim to the land that once hosted their home. No water, no sewer, no lights/electricity available yet. Just one small stretch of Gulfport is getting new sidewalks and street lights -- it's costing over 2 million dollars. Bringing back whole communities is going to be very difficult. It is enough to make you cry, a year and a half after the storm.

More when the spirit moves and I have access to wifi.

Seventies Song Suxsations

After a three month hiatus, I return to the Monday Mambo. This week, Russ/rfduck has scuttled the (unknown) theme in favor of queries regarding our 1970's music predilections. Here, see for yourself:

1. What is your favorite band from the seventies (any band that recorded in that decade)?
Hmmm, I was fond of a whole bunch of them. Which genre?

Ok, easy answer - The Doors, Moody Blues, Jefferson Airship, The Grateful Dead are all favorites in their own niches...
2. What is your favorite song that band released in the seventies?
"Roadhouse Blues (1970)" and Riders On The Storm (1970)" come to mind.

3. Where would we find you in the seventies - a disco, a punk concert, or neither?
Neither. I could be found at a little dive a couple of blocks from the Burlington, Vermont waterfront named "The Chicken Bone" owned by a former college roommate. Disco was pervasive in most of the clubs, but at "The Bone" it was an admixture of blues, punk and other rock that could be heard on Friday and Saturday nights.

Dustoff Requested... I think

I am sitting outside in a nameless* suburb of Baton Rouge just after midnight on New Year's Eve. Frankly, over the past six hours since the sun set I have been subjected to more ordinance than I have experienced since the Fall of Saigon. The air reeks of cordite; the smoke is as thick as the early morning fog along the Mississippi River this time of year. The denizens have fired off everything from M-80's, bottle rockets to some of the biggest mortar rounds one can purchase without a Federal ATF license. Literally, I haven't heard and felt this many shots since Viet Nam. I've dropped to the deck at least three times I can remember to hunker down through incoming. Scary folks ... these middle class dudes are armed to the teeth and aren't afraid to let you know it, while their richer counterparts, white and black, hide inside their gated communities, hoping the next off-color visitor to their door won't rob them blind or worse.

This isn't Maine anymore, Dorothy...

I am sated on hamburgers, hot dogs, smoked beef sausage, baked beans and cheese grits. The weather warns of a hard freeze tomorrow (Tuesday) night, although it's a balmy 54 degrees F. right now.

It's hard to comprehend that my friends in the North Country are shoveling out from under a 10" snowfall with another half a foot forecast for tomorrow night.

We sure picked a good winter to be stranded in the South.

I hope you all have a wonderful 2008. The year just past has been a rough one for us on many levels, so I'm hoping things change in the near future.

Love to you all.

Wil


(* "nameless" to protect the guilty -- this subdivision is full of Baton Rouge and other parish's cops, firefighters, paramedics and active duty military troops and their families)

More Pissin' and Moanin'

Via my stepson Daniel comes this somewhat technical joke I found amusing:

THE PSYCHIC DOG AND THE TELEPHONE

A Kansas farm wife called the local phone company to report that her
telephone failed to ring when her friends called. She explained that on the
few occasions when it did ring, her dog would moan loudly just before her phone
rang.

The telephone repairman proceeded to the farm, eager to meet this psychic
dog. Although, he was somewhat concerned that the problem was really just a
senile woman.

Upon arrival, he climbed the pole, hooked in his test set and dialed the
subscriber's house. The phone didn't ring at first, but then the dog moaned and
the phone could be heard ringing.

Climbing down from the pole, the telephone repairman found:

1. The dog was tied to the telephone system's ground wire with a steel chain
   and chain link collar


2. The ground wire connection to the ground wire was loose


3. The dog was receiving 90 volts of signalling current whenever the number was
   called


4. After a couple of ringing jolts, the dog would start moaning, presumably
   from the discomfort of being shocked, and then would urinate


5. The wet ground would complete the circuit, allowing the telephone to
   ring.

All of which just goes to show that yes, some problems CAN be fixed by pising
and moaning.

Finalized the repair plans to the trailer yesterday. Neither the local shop nor the manufacturer's service department in Ohio would be able to see us until after the seasonal holiday period. Given my growing distaste for snow and cold weather, I decided that having to stick it out here in sub-tropical Louisiana beat the heck out of freezing my ass off in the parking lot at Airstream in Ohio in two foot of the white crap (with more on the way). I guess we'll just have to let my house freeze this year. Miss our dog, though. She's having an adventure as guardian of a young lady about to have twins! Looks like Willow the Wonderdog will be around for the blessed event! Sorry about that, DG.

Send your cards and gifts to the Olddog via Thibodeau's Gator Farm, Bourne de Bayou, Louisiana, attention to "Old One Arm Willy."

A Walk On The Wild Side

Still in Louisiana and probably will remain here another few weeks trying to get the trailer repairs completed so I don't fill it full of ice and snow when I return to the North Country. Meanwhile, Mary sent this wee bit of humor in this morning's email and I thought I'd share with y'all...

"I took my dad to the mall the other day to buy some new shoes. We decided to grab a bite at the food court. I noticed he was watching a teenager sitting next to him. The teenager had spiked hair in all different colors: green, red, orange, and blue. My dad kept staring at him. The teenager would look and find him staring every time.

When the teenager had enough, he sarcastically asked,"What's the matter old man, never done anything wild in your life?"

Knowing my Dad, I quickly swallowed my food so that I would not choke on his answer, knowing he would have a good one. And in classic style he did not bat an eye lash in response.

"Got drunk once and had sex with a peacock. I was just wondering if you were my son."


There you go - a wee bit of humor. Hope it brought a smile to your hard-hearted, world-weary, "I-hate-Christmas-Bah Humbug" lips. It did mine. :)

Humor: A Bottle of Wine

This appeared in my email this morning and brought a little smile...

For all of us who are married, were married, wish you were married, or wish you weren't married, this is something to smile about the next time you see a bottle of wine:

Sally was driving home from one of her business trips in Northern Arizona when she saw an elderly Navajo woman walking on the side of the road.

As the trip was a long and quiet one, she stopped the car and asked the Navajo woman if she would like a ride. With a silent nod of thanks, the woman got into the car.

Resuming the journey, Sally tried in vain to make a bit of small talk with the Navajo woman. The old woman just sat silently, looking intently at everything she saw, studying every little detail, until she noticed a brown bag on the seat next to Sally.

"What in bag?" asked the old woman?

Sally looked down at the brown bag and said, "It's a bottle of wine. I got it for my husband."

The Navajo woman was silent for another moment or two. Then speaking with the quiet wisdom of an elder, she said:

"Good trade."

Have a good weekend, folks.

Amongst the living...

Still here in the home of Huey P. Long, the KKK and more churches than Carter's has pills. Like the fatted calf, I have been feeding on crawdads, shrimp etoufe, crab-stuffed shrimp and Cane's chicken strips. No photos, yet - left the cable at home for the camera and my daughter's computer hasn't got a card reader.

Am awaiting an estimate for the insurance company for repairs to the trailer. Then, hopefully, we'll be able to get th wheels in motion to effect said repairs - I don't look forward to driving back during heavy snowstorms on the East Coast. The longer we're delayed, the more likely that is going to be the reality...

Trail of Tears, Rips and Breakdowns...

Well, we FINALLY got on the road last Thursday afternoon after a false start. Made it all of twenty miles down the road when it suddenly dawned on yours truly that we (read "I") had left the registration for the trailer at home. Seeing as I'm such a magnet for cops seeking an hollow instrument to thrum their Kubatons upon, I decided discretion is the better part of valor and went back in search of the silly slip of paper. Fruitless after tearing apart the house for two hours, I was saved by my wife's exasperated suggestion I go to the DMV and get a duplicate.
Duh!

A total of four hours later, we left with yours truly waving a registration and shouting "HiHo Silver, Away!"

Made it to somewhere outside of Boston where I grabbed a four hour restorative, then back on the road at midnight for another four hour run to somewhere just north of New York City. Put up for morning drive time and slept while the commuters wailed and gnashed their collective teeth.

Pulled out and hit the road about 9:30 in a drizzle and blustery conditions. All went well until the New Jersey Turnpike. Then the weather gremlins got serious. Stopped at a rest area and waited out the passage of the front somewhere near that hospital that House terrifies. Later the same afternoon, fortified by a nap, insulin and lunch, we "hobby horsed" our way down the New Jersey Turnpike on their trademark concrete and crack filler surface to the snafu from road construction hell at the border with Delaware, the gateway to the Delmarva peninsula.
There's nothing like five lanes of snarled traffic, me in the far left and needing to be in the far right! My wife's "powers of persuasion" (note to self - do NOT allow her to play with the Mossberg 500 JIC in traffic again) got us over to our exit and onto the amazingly complex network of local, unmarked highways and by-ways that constitute the transportation system of Eastern Maryland. Frantic cell calls to the 84 year-young uncle and a firing up of the old Garmin 76s GPS saved the evening and we wallowed into Rock Hall, Maryland under the cover of darkness.

A good thing it was dark, too. My only living relative lives on the main drag in town so you can imagine the mess that'd have ensued if I'd tried to back the Airstream into their driveway during rush hour! Well, y'alled be proud to know I did it first try, like I created the art of backing a 7 1/2 foot wide trailer down an eight foot wide drive!

We had an interesting stay with my peeps. Visited some fun restaurants, worked like a dog trying to get the water and sewage systems functional. We'd hoped to be back on the road on Sunday, but a combination of factors conspired to delay departure until midday Monday. Oh well, so much for visiting Nag's Head and Cape Hatteras on the way down. Instead, for the past few days it's been a steady slog down the Interstates to Louisiana.

Or at least it was until yesterday.

Just outside of Meridian, Mississippi we must have picked up some debris with our tires, because as we climbed the hill at 70 MPH we found ourselves being shaken to within an inch of depositing our kidneys in our shins! Off to the side we went. One tire shredded like you see on NASCAR races, tore up the side of the trailer, shattering the fiberglass inner wheel well and mangling the outer, ABS plastic wheel well and the aluminum shroud in the immediate vicinity. Changing the tire was relatively easy once I got her stopped and my heartrate back to something approaching normal.

No, the hard part was hacking and sawing (with a Ginzu knife) the ABS outer wheel well away that had collected as a hard lump of plastics between the two tires. Two hours on the side of the Interstate took care of that and then the hunt for tires began.

A lovely, soft-spoken young woman at Camperland RV Sales went above and beyond the call of duty to help us find a pair of tires at Ed Cheney's Tire Sales in downtown Meridian.

They got us fixed up with two tires and checked all of our tire pressures and back on the road in less than two hours on the day before Thanksgiving! Amazing service. A tip of the old fedora to the guys down there for helping out this old reprobate yankee hippy!

We made it the rest of the way to our destination in Baton Rouge, Louisiana before 7PM. Badly in need of a shower and some food, family took us in, cleaned us up and fed us more barbecue than I could eat! A good, long night's sleep and a cup of coffee and I am starting to feel almost normal, if normal is 60's and seventies on Thanksgiving morning! :)

So, there you have it, No pictures yet, haven't really had time to take any, but the wife has a few on her cell phone -- I'll see if I can get them off and into machine-useable form. Today we're doing laundry and cleaning out the car. Tonight, we take off to Texas for a Renaissance Faire with the kids and grandmonsters. Seems there's an oil well that blew up and caught fire last week right next to I-10, so it is closed west of Baton Rouge. Oh joy - back roads the whole way! Yippee Ki-Yay, motherhumpers ... ;) More on the flip side.

Adding Insult To Injury...

Nope, not gone yet. On top of my own general malaise and disorganization, the heater in the trailer decided it was going to get finicky. I can't find the problem, but it goes off on thermal cut-off if I leave the cover in place over the heater space. Snow and ice are in the forecast. Not good...

Saturday afternoon, with only an hour and a half of daylight left, I haul out the big half-inch electrical drill to drill the trailer frame for the anti-sway system install and the drill is dead. I mean kaput. No time to waste, I hightail it to town and get a new one, but by the time I fought my way back through the traffic (this is a big shopping weekend for Canadians to come down here, so the town is jammed with Canadians on top of the locals from outlying towns all cramming in for the weekly shopping) the light was gone and the puddle in the driveway was frozen. Ideal working conditions - not.

Saturday night, the freshwater pressure tank on the house's water system decided it was time to give up the ghost. The pump was circulating madly and water was spraying all over the place. Found a water tank at Home Despot and spent six hours changing it out yesterday.

To celebrate, the wife and I went to town to get something to eat and she decides she needs some cash from the ATM. As I was finishing up the transaction for her, the receipt blew under the car, so stupid me pulls ahead, gets out and walks back to get it only to hear the "Ker-thunk" of the ATM eating her debit card! Fuck me with a porcupine!

As today is a bank holiday due to Veteran's Day (Canada's Remembrance Day) we are stuck here until tomorrow morning when, we hope, the bank will finally open and we can attempt to retrieve her debit card. Cause that was what we were going to use to get back on...

If I believed in God, I'd surely expect a flood any day now...

MEME: Wednesday Mind Hump – Almonds Molè

Rfduck is up to his old tricks again:

"Hello again! Hump day is here, so it's time to play. I don't think today's theme (Bittersweet chocolate with almonds day) is very useable, although it is tasty. So we'll talk about lasts today. Name me your:"

Last album/CD/mp3 listened to: Knockin' on Heaven's Door performed by Antony and the Johnsons
Last book read: Chill Factor by Rachel Caine
Last food eaten: Parmigiana Steak Sandwich from Amato's
Last beverage drunk: Coffee (Decaf w/cream)
Last movie watched: Ratatouille
Last item bought: 40 pounds of dog food and 80 pounds of cat food, a carton of cigarettes and a case of Diet Coke for my wife.

Y'all behave now, y'hear? I've gotten stale, so I'm going on hiatus and will return to these precincts, hopefully rejuvenated and ready to write something more than answers to recurrent memes, sometime in early December. Until then, don't do anything I wouldn't do if I still could.

MEME: Monday Music Mambo - A Hero Is Just A Sandwich

Rfduck is hunting for new thrills: “Hello readers! Another mambo is upon us. Today's theme isn't very useable, so I'm going to go with Saturday's theme - Sandwich Day. “

“Make a musical sandwich. Pick a band, musician or instrument for each ingredient.”

Bread (holds everything together) – Bass and drums
Meat (the main attraction, the superstar) – Lead Guitar, Singer, Mick Jagger; Leonard Cohen
Vegetables (crunchy and cool) – U2,
Condiments (makes everything smooth) – Eric Clapton

If you want to, add a side of fries (hot and salty) - Side singers, Perla Battala

Get your copy of the question here.

MEME: Saturday Six - Episode 185

Patrick loves to stir “stuff.” For example: “Here’s a new set of questions based on the ever-popular argument: Mac vs. PC! And I’ll repeat a statement from last week’s set of questions: there are no right or wrong answers…just your own opinions.”

First to play last week: Jude of “My Way.” Congratulations!

Here are this week’s “Saturday Six” questions. Either answer the questions in a comment here, or put the answers in an entry on your journal…but either way, leave a link to your journal so that everyone else can visit! To be counted as “first to play,” you must be the first player to either answer the questions in a comment or to provide a complete link to the specific entry in your journal in which you answer the questions. A link to your journal in general cannot count. Enjoy!

1. What was the brand and model (if you remember) of the first computer you remember using? NorthStar Horizon – it was a loaner from my younger brother. He'd built it by hand (literally – thousands of components that needed to be soldered to circuit boards by hand) in 1980 and completed his college thesis with it – the first computer program for calculating ceramic glazes. He sold all rights to it to Corning Glass and it never saw the light of day. The PC world was moving too fast and the standard shifted to IBM PC's shortly thereafter. I'd actually used a computer (IBM mainframe) ten years earlier in college. Lordylordylordy, how I hated punch cards!

2. What year do you remember using a home computer for the first time? 1981

3. Hype aside, which platform do you prefer: Mac or PC? For most people who only need a computer for simple things, for it's ease of use and the quirky nature of its supporters, I prefer a Mac. When I require hardware flexibility, broad (free or inexpensive) software choices the PC + Unix combination is my favorite. What I have and hate is a Micro$oft Windoze PC.

4. Take the quiz: Are you a Mac or PC?

You are a PC

You're practical, thrifty, and able to do almost anything. Appearances and trends aren't important to you. You just like to get the job done.

Are You a Mac or a PC?

5. How fair would you consider the quiz to be based on the responses? I dislike “either/or” quizzes – far too limited a response range. Consequently, it isn't a fair representation of my preferences.

6. If money were no object, what brand of computer would you most likely purchase? A Cray supercomputer.

MEME: Unconscious Mutterings -- Week 248

9 hours, 25 minutes ago

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Assets :: Liabilities

2. Concern :: going

3. Over the top :: histrionics

4. Supplies :: winter

5. Mustache :: beard

6. Doug :: Wizard

7. Coach :: Mentor

8. Bleachers :: hardwood

9. Stripes :: Sargent's

10. Assortment :: odd lots

Clicken ze linken above to get your own blank list of words...