Monday, May 25, 2009

Hey, you sass that hoopy Douglas Adams? There's a frood who really knows where his towel is.

I may not have gone where I intended to go,
but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.
- Douglas Adams

Douglas Adams
(1952 - 2001)





What's Towel Day? Wired has a handy article.



(thanks to Travis Avery for the banner)

Friday, May 22, 2009

Some People Just Shouldn't Use Certain Phrases

(And no, I'm not talking about "unwholesome words")

I just read Darryl G. Hart, Orthodox Presbyterian extraordinaire, use the phrase "Man Crush" in respect to Leon Kass*.

I have to go wash my brain out now.


* from what little exposure I've had to the man (mostly from Ken Myers), he does seem deserving of the affection.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

An Open Note to:

(tried to get all this in the subject line, but apparently there's a character limit)

An Open Note to: NBC, Subway, Alan Sepinwall, Mo Ryan, Give Me My Remote, Daniel Fienberg, Chuck TV, and Save Chuck

Thank you. Thank you very much. From the bottom of my deeply shallow, quality-entertainment-loving heart, thank you.

I'll be there in March, buying as many foot-longs as I can.

Monday, May 18, 2009

A Little Political Satire to Get Your Week Started

by Victor Davis Hanson at NRO:

The first 100 days of the Palin presidency, according to a consensus of media commentators, have proven a near disaster. Perhaps it was Palin’s scant two years’ experience in a major government position that has eroded her gravitas, or maybe it was her flirty reliance on looks and informal chit-chat. In any case, the press has had a field day, and it is hard to see how President Palin can ever recover from the Quayle/potatoe syndrome. Here is a roundup of this week’s pundit mockery.

LET THEM EAT MOOSE
"Ted Stevens may have gotten off," wrote Bob Herbert in the New York Times, "but he taught our Sarah something first — like using $100-a-pound beef for her state dinners. And what's this $50 mil for her inauguration gala? Since when do you fly in your favorite pizza-maker from across the country on our dime? Or send the presidential 747 for a spin over the Big Apple for a third-of-a-million-dollar joyride? Does Palin think she’s still in Alaska and has to have everything flown in from the South 48 by jumbo jet?"
read it all

(and no, I didn't get chained to my keyboard this weekend, just the opposite)

Sunday, May 17, 2009

What's On My Mind at the Moment

Nothing major here, just thought I'd share a bit...

On this fine Sunday evening, I find myself mediating on the manifold gifts our great God blesses us with, from:

  • The Awe-Inspiring (for example, saving grace)


  • The Oft-Overlooked (for example, opposable thumbs)

  • to The Sublime (for example, Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout)

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Choking

I was asked yesterday if I remembered I had a blog. Hadn't realized exactly how long it had been since I posted anything, sorry 'bout that, faithful readers (all 3 of you).

I have more than one post in mind, but haven't been able to get 'em out, I guess. It's not that I'm claiming writer's block (I tend to agree with Robert B. Parker, there's no such thing), but I do think I'm over-thinking my writing lately.

I remember a couple years ago, A-Rod was having a rough season and pundits, analysts and guys who watch too much ESPN were talking about him trying too hard. You could see him gripping the bat too tightly, for example--which only helped to throw his mechanics off.

I find myself doing similar things lately (obviously I don't squeeze the bat too tightly, but maybe, just maybe I hit the keys too hard), I've got a couple of short pieces I need to have written weeks ago--and in a sense, I've written them, I know exactly what I want to say, but I can't get them on paper. I re-write phrases as I type--I can't even get full sentences out. And 'til I get them out, I'm having a hard time getting anything written (even my Facebook statuses are fewer and farther between than normal--I think duller, too, but other can be the judge of that).

I'm going to try to chain myself to my keyboard this weekend and pull those two pieces out, which will hopefully break the log jam (and relieve the great burden of guilt I'm carrying over not getting them done)--so hopefully by the Monday or so, there'll be a steady flow of posts again.

To sum up: keep checking, I haven't forgotten about this place.

To paraphrase the 16th president, I'm sorry this is post is so long. I did not have the time to write a short one.

Saturday, May 09, 2009

For Our Mom



From Frodo, Samwise, the Princess, and Arnold

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Just had to Share this One

This is one of those, I have to write down so I'll remember it in the years to come.

Arnold and his sister went camping and fishing with my parents this last weekend--because of the rain, "camping" is loosely defined as sleeping in sleeping bags on the living room floor. Which explains all the grass underneath Arnold's feet in this picture.

Of course, since they were camping, they had a cookout or two, and roasted marshmallows. Towards the end of the roasting, Arnold declares that he's making one for his dad, which probably elicited it's share of chuckles, and they tried to move on. But he's got this way about him that makes his parents do things they normally wouldn't do--making Grammy very susceptible to his whims. So, she wraps it in a piece of wax paper and plastic wrap.

And he kept it.

Sunday when he came home (after the excitement of meeting Wonder Mutt had died down), I was given this clump of plastic wrap around something. I could tell he thought he was being thoughtful and generous when he presented it to me, so I thanked him and hoped he'd explain.

No such luck--apparently the nature of the clump should've been obvious, so I thanked him, and he glowed. Thankfully, Grammy was still around to explain what I'd been given.

How thoughtful is that, really? Only time anyone's ever bothered to make me a roasted marshmallow and then keep it for a day.

Incidentally, it tasted great, still had some of that fresh off the stick smokey taste to it, too. :)

Is it Time for a Cast Change?

I've been thinking this for awhile, but while watching "The Beaver in the Otter," last week's episode of Bones, I've gotta say it. It's time for another casting change.

They've made some minor tweaks in the past--swtiching from Dr. Goodman to Cam, losing Zack, adding Sweets, and so on. But the one I'm proposing is a bit more drastic...

It's time to lose Dr. Brennan.

She's dull. She's boring. The "I don't get how non-genius types think" schtick is tired and worn. Time for her to either wise up to the rest of the world or move on.

This show would be so much more entertaining if it was just Booth and the rest of the Squints. Booth, Cam, Angela, Hodgins, Sweets and the Intern of the Week could fight crime on their own just fine without the lack-of-social skills Brennan (how can anyone be a best selling mystery author while knowing so little about how people act/live/think?).

Monday, May 04, 2009

Latest Member of our Pack

Meet Wonder Mutt (not her real name, but I figured everyone else has a blogname, she should, too. Which reminds me, I really need to watch Summer School again.)


I'd fully intended on writing more here, but the morning's getting away from me, and we still have to take our W-A-L-K (you gotta spell it out or she gets all excited).

Friday, May 01, 2009

Our Government at Work

from The Idaho Statesman:

The political rhetoric surrounding college football's Bowl Championship Series intensifies Friday in Washington, D.C. - and Boise State athletic director Gene Bleymaier will be part of the show.

Bleymaier is one of four college football officials scheduled to testify in front of a House of Representatives subcommittee in a hearing designed to push the sport closer to a playoff system. The idea has the support of President Barack Obama, which has stoked the interest of Congress again. The BCS was a hot topic there in 2005, too.

Congress is attacking two central issues - the lack of a "true" national champion and the imbalanced distribution of revenue, which favors the more powerful conferences.

"We are trying to create enough public pressure to cause them to switch voluntarily to a playoff system," Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, said, according to ESPN.com. "I have not yet pushed the bill. I emphasize the word 'yet.' If our friends at the BCS sit on their hands and yawn, this legislation could end up on the president's desk for his signature."
In other words, if they don't "voluntarily" do what we want, we'll make 'em!

Aside from that bald threat, what we have here in these days of a collapsing economy, our troops engaged in wars, threats to health (overstated or not) & security, a vacancy on the High Court, a reserve bank that screams to be audited, among so many other things, we have the government sticking it's nose into college sports.

This subcommittee would make a great list of Congresspeople to be recalled/impeached. It's past time we wake up and do something about these people.

Cuz I Needed Another Site to Obsess Over

I'm already spending almost as much time reading cooking/recipe sites/blogs as I do National League baseball (sorry, I'm an AL guy, what can I say?) and writing sites, and now, the beloved FoodNetwork has launched another, very helpful looking, site: Food2.com.

Full of flashy stuff, and helpful videos/tips. Check it out.





(I should also add they're giving goodies away today to random people who give 'em a shout-out on their blogs...)