November 2008 Archives

Elements by Callowlily

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Fire


Fire

Water


Water

Earth


Earth

Air


Air

Might be a nice Xmas Present for an art lover. Check her out at her myspace site:

http://www.myspace.com/callowlily

South Park Origins

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The original "Spirit of Christmas" (Frosty vs. Santa Claus) that turned into ...


The Video Xmas Card that started the show (Jesus vs. Santa Claus):


I think you'll see a lot of the themes re-presented below above in seminal form.

Southpark Xmas Classics

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Merry F&*#ing Christmas 


Hanukkah


Xmas in Hell

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD)

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Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a clinical syndrome caused by degeneration of the frontal lobe of the brain and may extend back to the temporal lobe. It is one of three syndromes caused by frontotemporal lobar degeneration.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frontotemporal_dementia

Symptoms can be classified (roughly) into two groups which underlie the functions of the frontal lobe: behavioural symptoms (and/or personality change) and symptoms related to problems with executive function.

Behavioural symptoms include lethargy and aspontaneity or oppositely disinhibition. Apathetic patients may become socially withdrawn and stay in bed all day or no longer take care of themselves. Disinhibited patients can make inappropriate (sometimes sexual) comments or perform inappropriate acts. Patients with FTD can sometimes get into trouble with the police because of inappropriate behaviour such as stealing. Recent findings indicate that psychotic symptoms are rare in FTD, possibly due to limited temporal-limbic involvement in this disorder. Among the FTD patients, only 2 (2.3%) had delusions, 1 of whom had paranoid ideation; no FTD patient had hallucinations. This was significantly less than the AD patients, 4 (17.4%) of whom had delusions and paranoia. [1] See ref. "Psychotic symptoms."

Executive function is the cognitive skill of planning and organizing. Patients become unable to perform skills that require complex planning or sequencing.

Language skills can be affected in a number of ways with two broad patterns. Some patients remain fluent with normal phonology and syntax but increasing difficulty with naming and word comprehension, known as semantic dementia in which there is atrophy of the anterior temporal lobes, typically with an asymmetric pattern. Other patients, by contrast, present with a breakdown in speech fluency due to articulation difficulty, phonological and/or syntactic errors but preservation of word comprehension, referred to as progressive nonfluent aphasia.


Ford's Car Plant in Brazil

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Ok, this is weird. My dad tells me about this video that he saw, and I'd seen it, too, but as part of a Science Channel show, not as a stand-alone item; however, now that I've seen it' it's OBVIOUS what this is about. 


This video is about lying about unions. They make the point more than once about how miraculous this plant is, and tie it all up neatly with a phrase at the end, just like the Science Channel segment did (and they used most of the same shots and script, though this has a different narrator).

Once is curious. Twice is a pattern.

Someone wants us to REALLY hate unions, and blame stuff on them.

Last week, management lied and said that the employees 'make' $70/hr, which is patently untrue. The management may have to SPEND that much per hour, due to poor investment strategies with the pension monies they were entrusted with, but that doesn't mean anyone MAKES that much.

To phrase it that way is quite simply a lie.

Unions brought us such terrible banes as weekends, health-insurance, vacations, and pensions. They are really awful people, if you think of those silver spoons they stole from the mouths of children of management.

I would suggest that any management who wants to be taken seriously in this arena take the initiative and STOP all those benefits that the unions procured for you, FIRST.

After the perks stop taking money off the top, perhaps there will be enough money for the folks who actually BUILD the stuff that's being sold.

Dallas

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I should be clear.  I dislike Dallas, and Plano, and Texas in general.  I have friends there, but that's quite anomalous as it relates to Texans as a whole.

Why?

Well, let's start with watching rolling prairie turn into what amounts to high-dollar sheep pens.  My bedroom community of Plano slowly got walls built around everything, so that you couldn't go from anywhere to anywhere without going through a fucking shopping center to get there.

I watched Dallas turn slowly brown over the years from my little vantage point on top of Oak Cliff.  I got sick of cars, and roads, and traffic jams.  I moved to Austin, sold my car, and rode my bike everywhere.

I watched Austin slowly turn into Dallas.  I bought a car because my programming job was eleven miles past the public transit system in Austin.

And all along, the 'dumbing down' of the educational system, so that the yokels wouldn't feel so (rightly) inferior to anyone who had even a modicum of intellect progressed, to the point where in this last election, fully twenty-five percent of the population believed that the man who is now President-elect is a muslim.

Well, for that matter, a SIGNIFICANT percentage of these morons will argue that the world is less than five thousand years old, and some will even 'show you' dinosaur and human tracks fossilized right in the same rocks.

I was so sick of Plano, I went to Dallas, but then had to leave to go to Austin, and eventually left for parts further west.

I'm a little leery of these local morons, and the local 'religion' of organicism, but all in all, they are a lot more intelligent than Texans, even if they are still a bunch of rubes (this is, actually, still the country that I'm in here, not a city).

But I want to get rid of my car again.  I want to ride the transit.  Dallas finally got an inkling of a decent transit system, but you have to drive to and from it, pretty much.

I want to go to a REAL movie theatre, and not drive two hours to get there.  It's bad enough to think of the time, but the cost is a full tank of gas over the price of the ticket, too.

It would be nice to get a decent pizza.  I mean, there's not much chance I'll get anything as good as Boston, but the *first* pizza place I ate at in SF was good (just picked it off the street).  It took forever to find a decent one in ABQ (there are two, in fact), but this place (Ukiah) is just lost.  The closest thing is 'Round Table' (a chain).  It's barely passable, but it's at least not Chef Boyardee style like the other places in town.

But even movie theaters, opera, museums, transit systems, restaurants and water parks can't fix Dallas.

If you could somehow remove the Texans, it would improve it, but only marginally.

Ultimately, it's flat and plastic, like a credit card.

How my friends and family stand it is mostly their lack of exposure to alternatives, I'm fairly certain.  I don't think it's an 'informed decision', in other words.

I think the best description came from Jimmy Dale Gilmore ("Dallas"):

Did you ever see Dallas from a DC-9 at night?

Well Dallas is a jewel, oh yeah, Dallas is a beautiful sight.

And Dallas is a jungle but Dallas gives a beautiful light.

Did you ever see Dallas from a DC-9 at night?


Well, Dallas is a woman who will walk on you when you're down.

But when you are up, she's the kind you want to take around.

But Dallas ain't a woman to help you get your feet on the ground.

Yes Dallas is a woman who will walk on you when you're down.


Well, I came into Dallas with the bright lights on my mind,

But I came into Dallas with a Dollar and a dime.


Dallas is a rich man with a death wish in his eye.

A steel and concrete soul with a warm hearted love disguise.

A rich man who tends to believe in his own lies.

Dallas is a rich man with a death wish in his eyes.


Nutritional Values

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SeattleSundayFest010-1.jpg
I got this from The Marijuna News Channel

I've been writing theology

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Over at yet *another* blog I made with the new software.

Ai got me "The Science of Mind" for my b-day.  I really like it.  It's an important theological work, and it's a foundation work for a lot of the subsequent thought (now that I'm reading it).

I don't agree with it, since it's kind of a one-sided argument, but there are a lot of important theological points addressed, so it's pretty fun to work with.

BTW, if you are looking at my prototype of 'The Ouique' (my Canadian friend), and see only this one listed, try last Ouique:


From AlanWatts.org

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Alan Watts audio downloads are now available through the Alan Watts org site, along with Alan Watts CD collections in both standard and MP3 formats.

Downloads support the Alan Watts Podcast, which is entering its third year.  To download talks from the Buddhism series please follow the link below:




Also for the next thirty days each CD order from either the Alan Watts Essential Lecture and Eastern Wisdom collections will receive a complimentary CD set of your choice (six CDs).

To take advantage of this offer, when ordering please type the name of the free set you would like to receive in the Comments section of the order blank, and it will be sent with your order.

This offer may not be combined with the Way of Liberation booklet offer, however all CD orders that do not specify a free set will be shipped with the Way of Liberation booklet instead. 


Perfect Storm

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mime-attachment.jpeg
Frank S.ent me a listing of the top ten Hubble pix.

Here's my favorite:

It's called the 'Perfect Storm'

Jokes & Puns (via Troll)

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Are you interested in making $$$$ fast?

Here's an incredibly simple way to do it, and there is nothing to buy, no investment to make, no money to lose! Try it now! Follow this simple procedure:

1) Hold down the shift key. 2) Hit the 4 key four times.


~~~~~


An old Wild West fort is about to be attacked. The wily old General sends for his trusty Indian Scout. "Scout, you must use all your thirty years of skills for me and try to estimate the sort of army we are up against here."

The trusty Indian Scout lays down and puts his ear to the ground. "Large war party," he says, "maybe three hundred braves, four chiefs, two on black stallions, two on white stallions.

Many, many guns! Medicine man also with them."

"Good grief!" exclaims the General, "you can tell all of that just by listening to the ground?"

"NO," replied the Indian. "I can see under the gate."

~~~~

Antiques enthusiast Mary spent all her free time haunting second-hand stores, flea markets, and other likely spots where she might encounter the odd find: a valuable antique of some sort, whose seller was unaware of its value and was offering it for a low price. On most of her expeditions she came up empty, but she enjoyed the thrill of the hunt and felt amply rewarded when she did manage to purchase a valuable old something-or- other from its unwitting seller. On one such expedition, buried in the back of a thrift shop, Mary encountered a small, old-fashioned kerosene lighting device. Her heart leapt at the sight of it; she was sure it was worth considerably more than the dollar on the price tag. Unfortunately, though, her newest find was infested with small albino insects that had jumped from the store's feline. She bought it all the same, though.
Now Mary had a little lamp. Its fleas were white as snow.

A squad car driver was covering a quiet beat out in the sticks when he was amazed to find a former lieutenant on the police force covering the beat.

He stopped the car and asked, "Why, Mike, this wouldn't be your new beat out here in the sticks, would it?"

"That it is," Mike replied grimly, "ever since I arrested the judge on his way to the masquerade ball."

"You mean you pinched his honor?" asked Pat.

"How was I to know that his convict suit was only a costume?" demanded Mike.

"Well," mused Pat, "'tis life and there's a lesson in this somewhere."

"That there is," replied Mike.

"Tis wise never to book a judge by his cover."

~ ~ ~

This guy goes to a costume party with a girl on his back.

"What the heck are you?" asks the host.

"I'm a snail" says the guy.

"But... you have a girl on your back" replies the host.

"Yeah," he says, "that's Michelle!"

~~~~~~

A certain band director was standing outside on a metal ladder during a concert, when a thunderstorm broke out. Amazingly, he wasn't hit by lightning, but the music was awful - it seems he just wasn't a very good conductor.

~~~~

When I was young I dreamed of being a test pilot. Flying higher, faster, farther. Risking my life for the science of aviation. But when I grew up I found out I wasn't qualified because of my poor eyesight. Now I work in a post office which gives me many of the same thrills. I'm always pushing the envelope!

~~~

24 Puns

1. The roundest knight at king Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi.

2. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian.

3. She was only a whiskey maker, but he loved her still.

4. A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class because it was a weapon of math disruption.

5. The butcher backed into the meat grinder and got a little behind in his work.

6. No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery.

7. A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.

8. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.

9. Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.

10. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

11. A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.

12. Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

13. Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the other, 'You stay here, I'll go on a head.'

14. I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.

15. A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: 'Keep off the Grass.'

16. A small boy swallowed some coins and was taken to a hospital.
When his grandmother telephoned to ask how he was, a nurse said, 'No change yet.'

17. A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.

18. It's not that the man did not know how to juggle, he just didn't have the balls to do it.

19. The short fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.

20. The man who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.

21. A backward poet writes inverse.

22. In democracy it's your vote that counts. In feudalism it's your count that votes.

23. When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.

24. Don't join dangerous cults: Practice safe sects!

track back

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Just testing these things.

Dating Geezers (like me)

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I got this from 'eHarmony.com' today.  Here's my commentary (in parens):

Scan the pages of any issue of People magazine, and you'll get the idea that relationship age gaps are all the rage. Tom and Katie, Rod and Penny, and Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas are just a few couples with decades between them. Not that the phenomenon is that new - the likes of Bogey and Bacall and Sinatra and Mia Farrow were doing it even before our current celebs were begging for a first date.

But how do you make sure that your relationship with an older man is more Harrison and Calista and less Paul McCartney and Heather Mills? Here are eight things you should know about dating an older man...

1) Children

Chances are that if a man's started sprouting grey hairs, he probably produced a few children along the way who helped put them there. This may not be an issue for you, but it's one that should be seriously thought through before committing to a relationship with him.

While it's most likely going to be the mother that has full custody, expect weekends dedicated to his kids and attention away from you when he needs to be there for them. Plus, you have to consider whether you're ready for a relationship with his children and what that really means.

Will they resent you for being with their father? Will they adore you and want to spend all their vacation time with you? Either way, you have to be prepared for the reality of their input and how it will impact your relationship. There's also a chance that if he's already had children, the last thing he wants is any more. Or maybe he's ready to add to his brood and wants to get started before he gets too much older. Either way, make sure you've talked to each other at length about your options and your needs, and make sure you're on the same page.

(er, that should be obvious, I hope--no issues with issues)

2) He May be Set in His Ways

When you meet someone in your youth, if you're lucky, you'll meld and form sympathetic personalities together, enabling you to naturally be in sync. When you meet someone fully formed, that person's had a lifetime to know what he wants and how he likes it, and he's most unlikely to be open to changes. Sure, he won't be entirely inflexible, but what you see is what you get, and if you're hoping you can start molding him, it's very unlikely to happen. So make sure you like what you're getting and don't start expecting big changes.

(I'm getting more rigid as my understanding increases)

3) You May Not Get Cultural References

To him, Bread is a great old band from the '70s; for you, something to put in the toaster. To you, Ice-T is a New Jersey hip-hop legend; to him, a deliciously refreshing beverage. While on the surface, the differences can be fun and interesting, for some, the experience can be isolating. People use the experiences from their past to express themselves in the now, and if you're just not getting it, it can be frustrating for both of you.

(nah, I eat and listen to M&Ms)

4) Medical Issues

It's a basic, simple truth: the older you get, the sicker you are. What you have to decide is whether you're ready to watch his struggle with medical issues and understand how they're likely to impact your life together. While not everyone is going to fall apart as soon as they turn 40, no one can stop the inevitable. Older men often have special dietary requirements, have to cut down on their social drinking, snore louder, get aching joints, never go too far without a bottle of Tums... It's part of life, but you should be prepared to make his problems yours, too.

(I do tend to avoid sugar, but I've done that since my early twenties, I still drink like a fish, and other than arthritis and snoring don't fit much of this category)

5) Sexual Appetite

It's generally considered that men peak sexually between the ages of 18 and 25, and women between 25 and 40, so you do the math. Of course, plenty of older men still have the appetites of men half their age, and they also may find themselves invigorated by their new, younger partners. There's another plus here, too: older men usually have the experience to satisfy their partners. So what you may lose in quantity, you could gain in quality.

(that's not been an issue yet since I've yet to meet a woman who has more appetite)

6) Energy

Again, another simple fact of life - the older he gets, the less active he'll be. This isn't to ignore the fact that you're just as likely to find a man in his 20s who can barely drag himself away from his Xbox, but he's far less likely to want to spend his evenings waving his arms in the air to the latest R&B cuts. Similarly, house parties where the food is delivery pizza and you end up crashing on a crusted sofa aren't likely to hold much appeal to him, and if he's got work in the morning, chances are he'd appreciate an early night.

(it's really more 'enthusiasm' than energy, since ample energy exists for items of interest)

7) Money

While an older man has likely paid off his college tuition and established himself in his work, not all older men are Donald Trump (i.e., stinking rich). Some may be putting their kids through college, trying to invest as much as they can in their pensions, making alimony payments, or simply peaking in their earnings potential and riding it out until they retire. While they may seem wealthy relative to your typical early-20s exes, be realistic about their financial situations.

(well, given that I'm still not contracted, that's an annoying point, but generally I don't have to worry if what I put on my debit card has cash to cover it)

8) Spontaneity

Like we've established, the older you get, the more you know what you like, and this could turn into a problem if you're the type that likes to pick up and go when the opportunity strikes. Before he ups and goes, he's likely to need to square it with the mother of his children, let his boss know, make sure he's got his meds together and pull together some clean shirts. On the plus side, his more measured ways could offer some stability to your life, helping to give you some focus and direction.

(still up for a round of stupidity any day of the week, and in the case of hysterical mass stupidity--like 'Burning Man' or something, more likely to have water with me than most, since Epicureanism really IS it's own reward)


Of course, of the below (Alice)

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The really salient paragraph:

I went over to the sargent, said, "Sargeant, you got a lot a damn gall to ask me if I've rehabilitated myself, I mean, I mean, I mean that just, I'm sittin' here on the bench, I mean I'm sittin here on the Group W bench
'cause you want to know if I'm moral enough join the army, burn women, kids, houses and villages after bein' a litterbug."  He looked at me and said, "Kid, we don't like your kind, and we're gonna send your fingerprints
off to Washington."

Rocky Horror

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For some reason, they are playing this on Chiller TV (Dish ch. 199).

I suppose it's the new  Alice's Restaurant, or is that  Alice's Restaurant?

In any case, at least it's "Alice's Restaurant":

Alice's Restaurant
By Arlo Guthrie

This song is called Alice's Restaurant, and it's about Alice, and the
restaurant, but Alice's Restaurant is not the name of the restaurant,
that's just the name of the song, and that's why I called the song Alice's
Restaurant.

You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant
You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant
Walk right in it's around the back
Just a half a mile from the railroad track
You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant

Now it all started two Thanksgivings ago, was on - two years ago on
Thanksgiving, when my friend and I went up to visit Alice at the
restaurant, but Alice doesn't live in the restaurant, she lives in the
church nearby the restaurant, in the bell-tower, with her husband Ray and
Fasha the dog. And livin' in the bell tower like that, they got a lot of
room downstairs where the pews used to be in.  Havin' all that room,
seein' as how they took out all the pews, they decided that they didn't
have to take out their garbage for a long time.

We got up there, we found all the garbage in there, and we decided it'd be
a friendly gesture for us to take the garbage down to the city dump.  So
we took the half a ton of garbage, put it in the back of a red VW
microbus, took shovels and rakes and implements of destruction and headed
on toward the city dump.

Well we got there and there was a big sign and a chain across across the
dump saying, "Closed on Thanksgiving."  And we had never heard of a dump
closed on Thanksgiving before, and with tears in our eyes we drove off
into the sunset looking for another place to put the garbage.

We didn't find one. Until we came to a side road, and off the side of the
side road there was another fifteen foot cliff and at the bottom of the
cliff there was another pile of garbage. And we decided that one big pile
is better than two little piles, and rather than bring that one up we
decided to throw our's down.

That's what we did, and drove back to the church, had a thanksgiving
dinner that couldn't be beat, went to sleep and didn't get up until the
next morning, when we got a phone call from officer Obie.  He said, "Kid,
we found your name on an envelope at the bottom of a half a ton of
garbage, and just wanted to know if you had any information about it." And
I said, "Yes, sir, Officer Obie, I cannot tell a lie, I put that envelope
under that garbage."

After speaking to Obie for about fourty-five minutes on the telephone we
finally arrived at the truth of the matter and said that we had to go down
and pick up the garbage, and also had to go down and speak to him at the
police officer's station.  So we got in the red VW microbus with the
shovels and rakes and implements of destruction and headed on toward the
police officer's station.

Now friends, there was only one or two things that Obie coulda done at
the police station, and the first was he could have given us a medal for
being so brave and honest on the telephone, which wasn't very likely, and
we didn't expect it, and the other thing was he could have bawled us out
and told us never to be see driving garbage around the vicinity again,
which is what we expected, but when we got to the police officer's station
there was a third possibility that we hadn't even counted upon, and we was
both immediately arrested.  Handcuffed.  And I said "Obie, I don't think I
can pick up the garbage with these handcuffs on."  He said, "Shut up, kid.
Get in the back of the patrol car."

And that's what we did, sat in the back of the patrol car and drove to the
quote Scene of the Crime unquote. I want tell you about the town of
Stockbridge, Massachusets, where this happened here, they got three stop
signs, two police officers, and one police car, but when we got to the
Scene of the Crime there was five police officers and three police cars,
being the biggest crime of the last fifty years, and everybody wanted to
get in the newspaper story about it. And they was using up all kinds of
cop equipment that they had hanging around the police officer's station.
They was taking plaster tire tracks, foot prints, dog smelling prints, and
they took twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy photographs with circles
and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each
one was to be used as evidence against us.  Took pictures of the approach,
the getaway, the northwest corner the southwest corner and that's not to
mention the aerial photography.

After the ordeal, we went back to the jail.  Obie said he was going to put
us in the cell.  Said, "Kid, I'm going to put you in the cell, I want your
wallet and your belt."  And I said, "Obie, I can understand you wanting my
wallet so I don't have any money to spend in the cell, but what do you
want my belt for?"  And he said, "Kid, we don't want any hangings."  I
said, "Obie, did you think I was going to hang myself for littering?"
Obie said he was making sure, and friends Obie was, cause he took out the
toilet seat so I couldn't hit myself over the head and drown, and he took
out the toilet paper so I couldn't bend the bars roll out the - roll the
toilet paper out the window, slide down the roll and have an escape.  Obie
was making sure, and it was about four or five hours later that Alice
(remember Alice? It's a song about Alice), Alice came by and with a few
nasty words to Obie on the side, bailed us out of jail, and we went back
to the church, had a another thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat,
and didn't get up until the next morning, when we all had to go to court.

We walked in, sat down, Obie came in with the twenty seven eight-by-ten
colour glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back
of each one, sat down.  Man came in said, "All rise."  We all stood up,
and Obie stood up with the twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy
pictures, and the judge walked in sat down with a seeing eye dog, and he
sat down, we sat down. Obie looked at the seeing eye dog, and then at the
twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures with circles and arrows
and a paragraph on the back of each one, and looked at the seeing eye dog.
And then at twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures with circles
and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one and began to cry,
'cause Obie came to the realization that it was a typical case of American
blind justice, and there wasn't nothing he could do about it, and the
judge wasn't going to look at the twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy
pictures with the circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each
one explaining what each one was to be used as evidence against us.  And
we was fined $50 and had to pick up the garbage in the snow, but thats not
what I came to tell you about.

Came to talk about the draft.

They got a building down New York City, it's called Whitehall Street,
where you walk in, you get injected, inspected, detected, infected,
neglected and selected.  I went down to get my physical examination one
day, and I walked in, I sat down, got good and drunk the night before, so
I looked and felt my best when I went in that morning.  `Cause I wanted to
look like the all-American kid from New York City, man I wanted, I wanted
to feel like the all-, I wanted to be the all American kid from New York,
and I walked in, sat down, I was hung down, brung down, hung up, and all
kinds o' mean nasty ugly things. And I waked in and sat down and they gave
me a piece of paper, said, "Kid, see the phsychiatrist, room 604."

And I went up there, I said, "Shrink, I want to kill.  I mean, I wanna, I
wanna kill.  Kill.  I wanna, I wanna see, I wanna see blood and gore and
guts and veins in my teeth.  Eat dead burnt bodies. I mean kill, Kill,
KILL, KILL."  And I started jumpin up and down yelling, "KILL, KILL," and
he started jumpin up and down with me and we was both jumping up and down
yelling, "KILL, KILL."  And the sargent came over, pinned a medal on me,
sent me down the hall, said, "You're our boy."

Didn't feel too good about it.

Proceeded on down the hall gettin more injections, inspections,
detections, neglections and all kinds of stuff that they was doin' to me
at the thing there, and I was there for two hours, three hours, four
hours, I was there for a long time going through all kinds of mean nasty
ugly things and I was just having a tough time there, and they was
inspecting, injecting every single part of me, and they was leaving no
part untouched.  Proceeded through, and when I finally came to the see the
last man, I walked in, walked in sat down after a whole big thing there,
and I walked up and said, "What do you want?"  He said, "Kid, we only got
one question. Have you ever been arrested?"

And I proceeded to tell him the story of the Alice's Restaurant Massacre,
with full orchestration and five part harmony and stuff like that and all
the phenome... - and he stopped me right there and said, "Kid, did you ever
go to court?"

And I proceeded to tell him the story of the twenty seven eight-by-ten
colour glossy pictures with the circles and arrows and the paragraph on
the back of each one, and he stopped me right there and said, "Kid, I want
you to go and sit down on that bench that says Group W .... NOW kid!!"

And I, I walked over to the, to the bench there, and there is, Group W's
where they put you if you may not be moral enough to join the army after
committing your special crime, and there was all kinds of mean nasty ugly
looking people on the bench there.  Mother rapers.  Father stabbers.  Father
rapers!  Father rapers sitting right there on the bench next to me!  And
they was mean and nasty and ugly and horrible crime-type guys sitting on the
bench next to me. And the meanest, ugliest, nastiest one, the meanest
father raper of them all, was coming over to me and he was mean 'n' ugly
'n' nasty 'n' horrible and all kind of things and he sat down next to me
and said, "Kid, whad'ya get?"  I said, "I didn't get nothing, I had to pay
$50 and pick up the garbage."  He said, "What were you arrested for, kid?"
And I said, "Littering."  And they all moved away from me on the bench
there, and the hairy eyeball and all kinds of mean nasty things, till I
said, "And creating a nuisance."  And they all came back, shook my hand,
and we had a great time on the bench, talkin about crime, mother stabbing,
father raping, all kinds of groovy things that we was talking about on the
bench.  And everything was fine, we was smoking cigarettes and all kinds of
things, until the Sargeant came over, had some paper in his hand, held it
up and said.

"Kids, this-piece-of-paper's-got-47-words-37-sentences-58-words-we-wanna-
know-details-of-the-crime-time-of-the-crime-and-any-other-kind-of-thing-
you-gotta-say-pertaining-to-and-about-the-crime-I-want-to-know-arresting-
officer's-name-and-any-other-kind-of-thing-you-gotta-say", and talked for
forty-five minutes and nobody understood a word that he said, but we had
fun filling out the forms and playing with the pencils on the bench there,
and I filled out the massacre with the four part harmony, and wrote it
down there, just like it was, and everything was fine and I put down the
pencil, and I turned over the piece of paper, and there, there on the
other side, in the middle of the other side, away from everything else on
the other side, in parentheses, capital letters, quotated, read the
following words:

("KID, HAVE YOU REHABILITATED YOURSELF?")

I went over to the sargent, said, "Sargeant, you got a lot a damn gall to
ask me if I've rehabilitated myself, I mean, I mean, I mean that just, I'm
sittin' here on the bench, I mean I'm sittin here on the Group W bench
'cause you want to know if I'm moral enough join the army, burn women,
kids, houses and villages after bein' a litterbug."  He looked at me and
said, "Kid, we don't like your kind, and we're gonna send your fingerprints
off to Washington."

And friends, somewhere in Washington enshrined in some little folder, is a
study in black and white of my fingerprints.  And the only reason I'm
singing you this song now is cause you may know somebody in a similar
situation, or you may be in a similar situation, and if your in a
situation like that there's only one thing you can do and that's walk into
the shrink wherever you are ,just walk in say "Shrink, You can get
anything you want, at Alice's restaurant.".  And walk out.  You know, if
one person, just one person does it they may think he's really sick and
they won't take him.  And if two people, two people do it, in harmony,
they may think they're both faggots and they won't take either of them.
And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in
singin a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. They may think it's an
organization.  And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day,I said
fifty people a day walking in singin a bar of Alice's Restaurant and
walking out.  And friends they may thinks it's a movement.

And that's what it is , the Alice's Restaurant Anti-Massacre Movement, and
all you got to do to join is sing it the next time it come's around on the
guitar.

With feeling.  So we'll wait for it to come around on the guitar, here and
sing it when it does.  Here it comes.

You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant
You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant
Walk right in it's around the back
Just a half a mile from the railroad track
You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant

That was horrible.  If you want to end war and stuff you got to sing loud.
I've been singing this song now for twenty five minutes. I could sing it
for another twenty five minutes.  I'm not proud... or tired.

So we'll wait till it comes around again, and this time with four part
harmony and feeling.

We're just waitin' for it to come around is what we're doing.

All right now.

You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant
Excepting Alice
You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant
Walk right in it's around the back
Just a half a mile from the railroad track
You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant

Da da da da da da da dum
At Alice's Restaurant

©1966,1967 (Renewed) by Appleseed Music Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Does anyone know how to Madison?

And exactly what sauce do they intend to serve with that meat?  I hope it's Bearnaise.

Apologies to any aficionados of bears who might be offended by that joke.

And yano I'm not referring to the kind of bears you dance with.


Superheroes (the 'missing' song from the end of The Rocky Horror Picture Show:


I've done a lot, God knows I've tried 


To find the truth, I've even lied,

but all I know is down inside I'm bleeding. 


And Super Heroes come to feast 

To taste the flesh not yet deceased 

And all I know is still the beast is feeding. 


And crawling on the planet's face 

Some insects called the human race 

Lost in time, lost in space 

And meaning.


Science fiction, double feature.

Frank has built and lost his creature.

Darkness has conquered Brad and Janet.

The servants gone to a distant planet.


woo-oo-oo, at the late night double feature picture show.

Jethro Tull Xmas Album

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At iTunes.


Check it out.  Track listing:

1. Birthday Card at Christmas
2. Holly Herald (Instrumental)
3. A Christmas Song
4. Another Christmas Song
5. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (Instrumental)
6. Jack Frost and the Hooded Crow
7. Last Man at the Party
8. Weathercock
9. Pavane (Instrumental)
10. First Snow on Brooklyn
11. Greensleeved (Instrumental)
12. Fire at Midnight
13. We Five Kings (Instrumental)
14. Ring Out Solstice Bells
15. Bourie (Instrumental)
16. A Winter Snowscape (Instrumental)

That's from Amazon.com

Whose Thanks Should We Give?

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T-day is utterly dependent not on God, but on dead Native Americans.

I'm a proud native of Wampanoag territory.

DI3270

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I've mentioned this logo before.  It was one of the neatest places I ever worked.  They had a sign with the silhouette of a man in a suit with a briefcase and the international 'NO' symbol over it on their front door.

I was going through old stuff, and I found their logo, and their corporate symbol:


Emerald Cup 2008

Gotta love a place who ships every product with a 'can of worms' on the box.

It's definitely 'truth in packaging' (though we were far below average on bugs shipped).

Frank S.ent a funny

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California vintners in the Napa Valley area, which primarily produce Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir and Pinot Grigio wines, have developed a new hybrid grape that acts as an anti-diuretic.

It is expected to reduce the number of trips older people have to make to the bathroom during the night.

The new wine will be marketed as:

PINO MORE

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE

Warning: Warning Warning!

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Ok, so I got a 'warning' in email this morning, and I realized, "It's cabin-fever season!"

Yano, that time of year when everyone actually sits down at their computers 'cause it's too cold outside to do anything else?

There must be a lack of oxygen in the house from all the extra breathing going on inside, or something.

Anyway, this is the season for 'warnings'.  You will get them soon, I'm sure.  I just got my first one.  Here's some excerpts:

Subject: FW: huge virus coming!!!! PLEASE READ AND FORWARD ON!!! 

  Hi All, I checked with Norton Anti-Virus, and they are gearing up for this virus!

  I checked Snopes (URL above:), and it is for real!!

  Get this E-mail message sent around to your contacts ASAP.

  PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS!

  You should be alert during the next few days. Do not open any message with an attachment entitled 'POSTCARD FROM HALLMARK,' regardless of who sent it to you. It is a virus which opens A POSTCARD IMAGE, which 'burns' the whole hard disc C of your computer. This virus will be received from  someone who has your e-mail address in his/her contact list. This is the reason why you need to send this e-mail to all your contacts It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it.

 If you receive a mail called' POSTCARD,' even though sent to you by a friend, do not open it! Shut down your computer immediately.  

This is the worst virus announced by CNN. It has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever. This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus.  This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept.

 COPY THIS E-MAIL, AND SEND IT TO YOUR FRIENDS. REMEMBER: IF YOU SEND IT TO THEM, YOU WILL BENEFIT ALL OF US.

Now, this is actually a pretty creative hoax.  It would have been improved if the URL referred to actually was listed (should be the Hallmark, below).
The 'virus' in question (the Hallmark Postcard trojan horse) is nasty, if you get it.

However, this text is really a rehash of the Olympic Torch Virus.

In any case, it's not a real virus.  It's a 'wetware' virus (infects the part of the system past the keyboard and monitor).

Now, I have to note (given that it's Xmas season, and people might be considering new computers), that the TCO (total cost of ownership) might SEEM high when you look at list price comparing a Windows PC to a Mac, but when you think of the TIME that you NEVER SPEND on the Mac wondering if you are infected (or diagnosing failed anti-virus software), it's a lot cheaper.

Of course, Linux is just as safe, and it's completely free.

And, still, most people don't *need* the computing power I purchased back in 1986.  Most people can't even use their mail-merge function (which is what I purchased Word 2.0 for DOS for in 1986). 

If you can browse the internet and it looks ok, and runs fast, and you can send and receive emails, and play games, then WTF?

Emerald Cup 2008

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Emerald Cup 2008
What: Emerald Triangle MedMar Contest
When: Dec 6, 2008
Where: Area 101, Laytonville, CA


Good Side to Everything

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I realized if my preferred Dem, Kucinich, had made it to the White House, that on Thanksgiving, he'd be pardoning tofu.

I doubt the tofu would appreciate it.

I'm pretty sure that the turkey just barely appreciates it less (fairly dumb birds).

E before I (like Einstein)

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Ok, I'm just dumping the stuff from the old blog:

This is one of (hopefully) many on one of my favorite topics, words which defy the "I before e, except after c, unless as an a, as in neighbor, or weigh" rule.

WEIRD
SEIGE
SEIZE

gotta go find my list.

Codeine

It's an E sound, there's no C anywhere near it (I mean, yes, the E is, literally, 'after C' but it's quite a bit after).

Keith

Never noticed it.

Not after C, nor sounding like A.

Is 'C' perhaps covered by the 'K'?

Gaah, if you followed my history here in CA you'd know why watching this tears me up.


The funny thing is that is one wants love, one first has to have peace, and to have peace, one has to have some modicum of understanding.  In order to have understanding, the group has to be working with the truth. 


As I walk through
This wicked world
Searchin for light in the darkness of insanity.

I ask myself
Is all hope lost? 
Is there only pain and hatred, and misery? 

And each time I feel like this inside,
Theres one thing I wanna know:
Whats so funny bout peace love & understanding? ohhhh
Whats so funny bout peace love & understanding? 

And as I walked on
Through troubled times
My spirit gets so downhearted sometimes
So where are the strong
And who are the trusted? 
And where is the harmony? 
Sweet harmony.

cause each time I feel it slippin away, just makes me wanna cry.
Whats so funny bout peace love & understanding? ohhhh
Whats so funny bout peace love & understanding? 

So where are the strong? 
And who are the trusted? 
And where is the harmony? 
Sweet harmony.

cause each time I feel it slippin away, just makes me wanna cry.
Whats so funny bout peace love & understanding? ohhhh
Whats so funny bout peace love & understanding? ohhhh
Whats so funny bout peace love & understanding?

Willie And Stephen Colbert Xmas

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Willie is the Phantom Wise Man, sent to bring baby J a J. 

Later in the show, little cops in toy cop cars show up and take him away.

I think Willie listened to Steve Martin's classic routine,  Let's Get Small:

I'm on drugs. I'm, uh, I mean, you know what it is. What's the deal, man? I like to get small. It's a wild, wild drug. Very dangerous for kids though, because they get really small. I know I shouldn't get small when I'm drivin', but, uh, I was drivin' around the other day, you know *whistles tunefully* and a cop pulls me over. And he goes, 'Hey, are you small?' I said, 'No, I'm tall, I'm tall.' He said, 'Well, I'm gonna have to measure you.' They've got a little test they give you; it's a balloon, and if you can get inside of it, they know... you're small. And they can't put you in a regular cell either, because you walk right out.


Weird Xbox Ad in India

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Gee, high tech meets, um, high? Jah knows what they are smoking there. 

A friend sent this today:

Well, it's here. A friend who's an ex-marine is in his local auto parts store the other day when he spots a guy who catches his eye as a fellow marine (he says he can spot an uninjured marine by the way they all walk) and then REALLY notices the guy's T-shirt, a black one that has a red crosshairs logo over a pic of dowtown NY or some urban area with a blurb about some or other "Civil Unit". My friend waits 'til the guy is done shopping and approaches him and asks "what's up about the shirt". He admits to being active military, but at first, the guy gives him the standard PR line about how his unit is here to assist the cops in case of a terrorist attack or "civil unrest".

But my friend has been following all this, and knows it's the 1st brigade, 3rd infantry of the ARMY that the public's been told is in the US to do "Homeland Security support, if needed", and he knows this guy is a marine. So he says, "C'mon. Marine-to-marine, what's the REAL story?" And the guy pauses, he looks my friends up and down, he takes a breath and says, "Congress met secretly a month or so ago and approved moving teams into every major US city in anticipation of the shit hitting the fan when the economy collapses. I'm part of a marine sniper team and our job is to take out anybody who uprises, especially anybody who's leading an uprising."

And my friend says, "So, how do you feel about that?" And the marine says some things I'd best not repeat (just because they could help the Nazis ID him and I'm sure we all assume everything we write is being surveilled) about how he's gonna become invisible for a while, if he gets the order, because, "There's no way in hell I'm gonna be shooting at American citizens!"

My friend thanked him for the info and his attitude and they parted. And my friend thinks this all makes sense in light of the comments some in-the-know types let slip about the crises Obama will be facing. Besides Biden's well-publicized comments about how Barack will be "challenged", I guess Powell and Albright made similar references. Me, I don't need Biden shooting off his big mouth to realize there's gonna be hell to pay if the economy collapses. And I think if it's a total collapse, things will be much worse than during the Great Depression if only because so few people are now self-sufficient to any degree. The cities would be in chaos, fersher, and it wouldn't take long for the farms to become targets of displaced hungry mobs - yech! So, yeah, it's believable the gov't is taking steps to get ready for the worst possibility, but not likely they can get really ready. That is, how could 300 million freaked out Americans be controlled?

Just thought you ought to know what I heard.

Yours,

B

PS - It's a fact that Congress did meet in secret in March of this year (Kucinich refused to attend and blasted it as anti-free-speech) supposedly to hear stuff about the need for the FISA changes; but long before the financial crisis reached a head, like in July, there were published leaks regarding the secret session and how it was about the dangers of and gov't response options to "civil unrest in the face of an economic collapse in the Fall".

Free MP3s!

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As long as it's L'Internationale

Bumper Snicker

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I saw it downtown today:

IMG_0324.JPG

South Park: Mac vs. PC

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Playing with the quote engine

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I'm moving it, and I ran across this one. Can't help but make me giggle, again. From Stefan Glock:
Heaven is where the police are British, the chefs are French, the mechanics German, the lovers Italian and it's all organized by the Swiss. 

Hell is where the chefs are British, the mechanics French, the lovers Swiss, the police German and it's all organized by the Italians.

Tou-fuckin'-che

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Mac vs. PC (vs. Linux)

more:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQGAb0U4wD0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDgEdcFTquM


BTW:

Payware (Novell branded, supported):

http://www.novell.com/linux/

Freeware (openSUSE.org downloadable installs):

http://www.opensuse.org/en/

Products:

Office: http://openoffice.org/
Illustrator: http://www.inkscape.org/
Photoshop: http://www.gimp.org/
Games: http://whdb.com/2008/top-25-linux-games-for-2008/

for all other windoze needs:

http://www.winehq.org/

Just for Ai

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Just a little item to make a spot for her.

;)


testing a movie

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Nice FAT rich text generation.

Hmm.  This could be interesting.
aarp_eyechart.jpeg
Let's take a look at how it hangs.

hometop

GreenStream

About this Archive

This page is an archive of entries from November 2008 listed from newest to oldest.

December 2008 is the next archive.

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Mentionables ...

It's been days since Israel broke the truce and started murdering Palestinians again.

Pres. Barack Obama
(202) 456-1111

Sen. Dianne Feinstein
(415) 393-0707

Sen. Barbara Boxer
(415) 403-0100

Mike Thompson
962-0933

S. Sen. Patricia Wiggins
(916) 651-4002

Assm. Wesley Chesbro
463-5770

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