but what does it mean?

it looks like change is afoot at work. at least in our little department. word is that in another part of the country, our department got combined with two other sections of the agency. no info on what happened to the people in the new department, but it looks like we're going to be finding out, first-hand, how it'll work. it's just conjecture at this point, to us underlings anyhow, but it won't surprise me if the action does take place, and within the next few months. and why do i think it actually will happen? because last week someone from the field office was asking what kind of stuff i did in my job. when my boss mentioned the query, she said she had told the big boss a couple of things to add to whatever list he had. 'good grief,' i said, 'two things? nobody has any idea what i do -- why didn't anyone ask me?' this was just before i went home, of course. the next morning i e-mailed her a three-page list of things i do on a regular basis. and i KNOW there were things on there she'd forgotten i was doing.

it'll be interesting to see how they handle everything. are we going to be riffed? are they going to give our jobs to officers? are there so many people in the other sections that they will get rid of some of us and spread the work around to the rest? it's long been know that our office has the most work/vehicles/people-we're-responsible-for of any office in the region, and we do our work with the least number of staff. like the big boss says, life isn't fair. i'm curious to see how it all plays out. and i just keep repeating to myself the mantra that the universe is looking out for my best interests.

movie fun

if you're in the mood to take a ride in the way-back machine, take a look at this. it talks about the best special effects in sci-fi/fantasy, and it's a lot of fun. i never think about 2001-a space odyssey anymore, or the matrix, or ghostbusters, or hellboy. and i never saw some of those horror flicks, i mean, yuck! but this is a fun half hour or so and brings back memories of times not that long ago (20 yrs, 30 yrs, etc).

for better or worse, getting older makes everything seem like yesterday.

preggers?

are you trying to get someone pregnant, but just can't seem to get the job done? maybe you should make some adjustments in the way you deal with the environment. prevention magazine has some tips, e.g. never touch a cash register receipt, avoid canned food like the plague, turn off your heated car seat, and always go organic. there are a couple more, but really, it seems like good advice for all of us. well, except for the heated car seat ... those of us without testicles should be okay.

i love you but i hate YOU

and then there is the hormone which promotes feelings of love and trust. recently it was discovered it also seems to reinforce bigotry. i don't know whether to be surprised or laugh.

i'm going to do what i want and the heck with everyone else

have you noticed, lately, how many people are rude or downright nasty? when everyone gets tired of being cut out of line, or taken advantage of, or getting a ticket while others whiz on by, then it's really going to get bad.

honestly, whatever happened to decency and goodness and courtesy? there's a lot more of that kind of thing in the midwest (north dakota south to texas and a state or two on either side) than there is in the pacific northwest or the east and southeast.

but the latest thing that caught my eye was ms. huffington who talked on her cell phone the whole time she was on the plane -- takeoff, flight, landing. what about the rules? i, for one, am really sick of people who just decide they don't have to obey the rules. one person gets away with it, and then another, then the whole domino thing happens. and if anyone objects, he is vilified and reviled! all this 'me, me, and only me' is going to bring this country down. damn.

at least the vote showed that most people didn't approve of her display. that's reassuring.

dream house

oh god i love this place!! click on the 'see all 25 pictures' and try to imagine what it would be like to live there! it was made (built?) in 1969 (good year!) out of chicken wire, burlap, and polyurethane. it's a 2-bedroom, 3 bath, 4000 sq ft place on 8+ acres with lots of trees and blue skies for $194,000-- what's not to like??!!!

insurance in other countries

i don't remember how i stumbled onto this 'women only car insurance' ad, but it's interesting. and the second one is frustrating as well as interesting. then this third ad is just great! i laughed so much and i'm not sure why. i mean, you've got to be proud of her -- she worked up her courage and accomplished her purpose.

so ... enjoy. or not.

look out, look out, look.... *splat!* and items suddenly quadruplicate....

the picture at the beginning of this article is pretty amazing -- so much junk we have left in space to fly around our world! good grief -- will we NEVER learn??!!!

they've been dying without 'em for years

oh this is rich. we are to belive that long-term care insurance is good for us? right. this article can't seem to figure out why more people don't buy it. well, let's see .... how much is top insurance management getting paid? have insurance companies ever screwed people? are premiums high and do they keep raising them? do insurance companies have dictates which should really be under the perview of doctors?

so, duh. people are sick of insurance companies and want to be left to die without the aggravation.

christmas music

well, now ... this is pretty cool. i've never heard of the north point iband, but check this out.

i love the bells, in fact the whole first thing was very great! i didn't care for the second one -- it pointed up how much better real instruments are. but the third one was very fun! all of it done with iphones and ipads. and the little robot guy was waaay cool!

enjoy!

i think it's in ontario

say you were eating at a shopping mall and music broke out ..... (thanks, sister-in-law!)

giddy-up

you've got to read this really funny account of a guy stealing food and making his get-away in a motorized shopping cart.

getting old is partly adventure and partly horror movie. i went to the eye doctor the other day because i had noticed, a number of months ago, that one particular ‘floater’ was always there in the same place. i didn’t go immediately because i wasn’t in any discomfort, it’s so hard to get away from work that i wanted to roll it up with a regular visit, and because the insurance company wasn’t going to pay anything unless it was more than a year since i’d gone previously.

after the eye doctor VERY thoroughly checked things out, he said it looked like my retina may have torn a little, but that it looked like my body was fixing it. he wanted me to come back in 3-4 months so he could see the progress.

he mentioned that if a bunch of floaters showed up, or one showed up persistently, or if a dark curtain covered half my vision, or anything strange happened, that i was to see him immediately. he also mentioned that several years ago, cataracts had started, but they hadn’t progressed.

do you know what this means? i’ve been moved out of the people-who-will-live-forever category into the people-who-might-die-someday category. i mean, these eye problems are things which happen to old people who do eventually die. honestly, it’s just amazing to think that includes me! who would have thought?!

computer weather

cloud computing. it's been a buzz-word for several years and now it's being adopted by the federal government. gsa is going forward with google and usda is going forward with microsoft. i know the gov't is trying to cut costs, but doesn't this seem like a right-hand/left-hand type of scenario? maybe they're trying to stay away from a monopoly situation, and maybe it doesn't matter, but big problems usually start out small.

but i guess the thing that really bothers me is this statement:  "But are there any security risks to moving to the cloud? One observer, noting that cloud platforms can host data servers on foreign soil, raised the specter of data being stored on third-party servers based outside the United States."

gsa doesn't seem concerned though:  "But Coleman told Nextgov that 'Information security is about much more than where your server sits,' because, regardless of location, all of the security controls in the contract are still monitored."

oh, of course. my fears are unreasonable. the security controls will be monitored. *sigh* will they never learn?

gsa has been, and continues to be, at the top of my list. of dunderheads.

amazing diversity

some republican comments about palin:

former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough: "What man or mouse with a fully functioning human brain and a resume as thin as Palin's would flirt with a presidential run?"


Mark McKinnon, a former campaign adviser to Republicans Bush and McCain: wrote that he admires Palin's "tenacity, her verve, her moxie and her pluck" but believes she is "perhaps the only Republican nominee who could lose in 2012."


Republican strategist Matt Mackowiak: "I think what's most worrisome is the uncertainty. She hasn't played the game at the national level like the others."

Jennifer Cross: "We just really like her. We think that she's down to earth, she's a mother and she's very intelligent no matter what others may say."

dumb bunnies

what do you think of this wikileaks thing? frankly, i think it's bad. i mean, anyone who discloses information like they've been doing should be thrown in jail.

FOIA was put in place to  legally get information, and there have always been moles and informants. but, gees, to get and distribute information which threatens our safety and way of life? i mean, does anyone really think these types of documents shouldn't exist? if so, you have no connection to reality!

trying to make everything the government does totally available to the public is just idiotic. you cannot run a large country by making every single thing public knowledge. do the terrorists operate that way? hell no. and have they been effective? pretty damn. do other countries honestly tell us what they're doing? hahaha.

transparency is a nice ideal, but get real. and people who expose sensitive and classified information should be allowed to rot in jail. without tv, books, computers, or yard time.

ah so ...

the husband and i went for thai tonight for supper. yeah, i know, we don't really like thai. i mean, lemongrass, cucumber, coconut, curry, and weird stuff like that -- yuck!!

but when we go there i get pad garlic. i mean, GARLIC!  yum!!! it's really great and it's fixed with chicken and spinach. just tooooo fabulous!

but that means i can't kiss the husband for awhile. he hates garlic.

turn here, no ... wait!

did you see how becoming a slave to gps might lower your brain function as you get older? i've just never gotten around to doing the gps thing. maybe my spiritual guide was keeping me away from something which wouldn't be good for me. i've worried along the way that maybe i was slipping behind in the 'knowledge of technology' area, but that might not necessarily be a bad thing. besides, i like doing the 'map' and 'getting lost' thing.

little green men? no.

it's amazing to me that these scientists are awed by their project of forcing microbes to assimilate arsenic rather than phosphorus. they have concluded, "If the claim holds up, it would lend weight to the idea that life as we know it isn't the only way life could develop."

well, duh. ego-and ethno-centrism at its finest.

i've always wondered when i've heard 'life couldn't exist there. it's (too cold, there's no oxygen, there's no water, there's no .....).' i mean, with the variety we have right here on earth, how could intelligent people NOT think life could appear in a variety of ways. *sheesh*

ca-na-ba-ru

able to last through extreme heat or cold! able to be used in shock absorbers or space craft! it's SUPer rubber!

entertainment!

some movies i think i want to see:

True Grit
Cowboys and Aliens
Tron: Legacy
Gulliver's Travels
The Tourist

no place like home

if you want to see a collection of interesting pictures of different places on our planet, go here. some of the pictures are interesting, some are cool, some are curious, some are icky, and some are beautiful.

don't always believe others

i don't get what hillary is trying to do with this longer hair style. it looks really bad on her. it makes her look tired, old, worn-down. her shorter style was much more energetic and complimentary. who is her hair dresser? honestly, some of the people who make fashion decisions must not care about the end result.

poor baby .... yeah right

the taliban people are tired and want the fighting to stop so they can rest. they have lost a lot of friends and commanders, and it bothers them.

but they have made it clear they just want a rest, not peace.

well, by all means -- let's give those poor people a well-needed rest so they can get restored and go back to massive killing and sadistic treatment of women.

or .... maybe we should hit 'em while they're down.

i just don't know what i'd do if it were my decision. 

tongues

just now, as i was thinking about lunch, i thought about 'sausage' then i thought about 'sorcerer' then i thought 'sorsage' -- try to say that fast, three times.

movers and shakers ....

my ex-boss is moving to florida. i guess it's been almost 2 years since she retired, and she and her husband decided since their family is all back over on the east coast that they should move back that direction. she's leaving a lovely house here on two lots overlooking the bay. nothing's moving up here, real estate-wise, so it could take forever for her house to sell, but i wish her lots of luck in that regard. and i hope she's happy in her new digs!!

oh, the weather outside was .....

i should have been taking pictures. thursday it snowed, probably between 2 and 4 inches, friday it rained, and today it's cloudy with absolutely no evidence of white stuff.

i had hoped we were going to have more of a winter than we did last year -- it mainly hovered around 57* all winter. so i guess you can say we did have more of a winter .... just not for very long.

amazing mishaps

did you see the item about the three youths (boys, aged 14 and 15) who drifted in a boat for 50 days across 800 miles? it's pretty amazing that they didn't suffer dramatic problems. they started out near the atafu atoll and ended up northeast of fiji. those islands aren't that big and that ocean is huge. i'm just in awe of the whole thing. in many ways they put kon-tiki to shame!

how has it come to this

i am mystified by the allure of sarah palin. yes, she's pretty, but so are a lot of people.

i believe if she were elected to the presidency that she would be so in-over-her-head and that nefarious personnel would 'come to her rescue'. i think those same nefarious personnel are leading the effort to get her elected, just so they can be in charge.

regardless there seem to be a lot of people who want to see her in office. WHAT are they thinking? she has incredibly little political experience, little world-wide experience, and not much class.

barbara bush doesn't have a lot of confidence in her either.

keeping up with the youngsters

if you want to read some funky, younger-person-frame-of-mind stuff, check out this guy. alt-text seems to have a good sense of humor, but i just really don't have time to check him out right now. i think it might be possible to get hooked on him, but i'm not really sure i'd understand everything he says.

ahhhh ..... old age. *sigh*

brush your hair

i came across this animated disney movie which just came out and it's 3-d, if you're into that -- it's called tangled and is a take on rapunzel. here are two sites you can go to and see what it's about. the first one gives you some background info on who the voices are, and the second one just gives you the preview.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40363738/ns/technology_and_science-science/

http://adisney.go.com/disneypictures/tangled/#/home/ 

it looks like fun! and has some sweet graphics (reminds me sometimes of pandora).

do this, or combine this and this, or ....

would you like to get 93 mpg? well, then, check this out! the Volt goes on sale next month.

don't jump! you'll be de-rezzed!

i just saw a curious you-tube video. it's called The Apple Tree - A Tribute to The Glitch Mob.

i don't know anything about 'the glitch mob' but i thought the video was interesting. it had some great graphics, and quick-clips from about 200 movies. the movies i recognized were matrix, avatar, tron 2, and then, i guess, about a zillion horror movies, one thing that must have been freddy kruger and another one that must have been medusa.

the guy has a good touch at putting things to gether, no doubt about that. and it's 15 minutes of stuff.

but the thing that really caught my eye was the Tron video -- Tron: Legacy - "Rerezzed", music by The Glitch Mob. and it caught the eye of the Tron producer, too. this clip is only just over 2 minutes and is very easy to watch.

if you're drawn to any of that stuff, check it out. both videos can be found here.

i remember back when Tron came out that i thought it was great!! and my kids liked it and i kept thinking it was great down through the years. most people i mentioned it to had never heard of it. i never read about it and never heard it mentioned and at one point i think jeff bridges almost didn't own up to having been in it. and now the second movie is getting good buzz. validation!

manna from heaven!

looking through one of my recent catalogs, i noticed cougar gold, a cheese made by washington state university. i love cheese and this stuff looks really excellent. (buy from wsu, not any catalog you get.)

another thing this catalog had was tur-duc-hen. i'm not sure i've ever heard of that, but it's boneless turkey breast stuffed with duck, chicken and port sausage stuffing. it's $60 but doesn't it sound good?!

another catalog had vermont maple syrup, vermont cheddar cheese (!), and vermont cider jelly. if i were going to buy some of those things, i would purchase from them -- they had a cute catalog.

there's another catalog that we're definitely going to order from in the next couple of weeks and they're from texas. midwesterners are our favorite people. this cheese and sausage item caught the husband's eye and the thing i'm wanting to get is this turkey/ham/beef trio.

yummy to all!!

peek-a-boo ...

i know i just posted about makeovers, but really, this site shows how much difference makeup can potentially make. they've got one gal on there twice with completely different looks (i didn't even realize it the first time through!) -- the biggest problem, though, is that SOMEtime the makeup has to come off. so i mainly think of it as deception. i mean, you can't hide forever ....

the bus is bigger than you are

what would you think if you saw this in front of you:

it's the back end, though ....

more bus pictures here if you're interested ......

oh look, it's ... oh look at ... oh look ....

i love creative ads -- i just discovered this site which has some ads that are pretty clever. but i really don't get the red bull one.

this one about all the apartment buildings, however, is just depressing!

my oldest younger brother steered me to these shopping bags -- i like the gun and the dumbell, he liked the goose.

i've got to spend some time on this site and see what else they have!

cat toys

there's a lot of crap on the internet and then there's funny stuff.  this little clip reminds me so much of the cat we used to have, DabTac, hiding and sticking his paw out and feeling around ....

look, there's another one ...

the husband sent me a video showing which countries were doing nuclear testing between 1945 and 1998. it's depicted on a world map and is interesting, although i'd have preferred they explain who's flags are whose. history and geography weren't my favorite subjects. anyhow, it looks like a swedish company put it together or at least helped, and without doing my own research i don't know if the video is accurate. still .... it's interesting. make sure your sound is on since it's more effective that way.

be careful of being helpful

i just had the worst dream. i was in a small strip mall area and had lunch at a small restaurant. the owners were busy and some of the tables needed to be wiped off, so i got a dish rag and wiped the empty tables before i left.


i went down the street to another restaurant, a small diner, that an asian couple owned. i really liked them and, of course, their food, and had told them i’d watch their place while they ran an errand. it was afternoon so they hadn’t expected many customers.

i went in and sat at one of the tables just enjoying the sunshine and the quiet. then i got up and went over to the sink, which was next to a small refrigerator and a george foreman grill. those items constituted their kitchen.

the husband came in and sat at one of the tables, just to enjoy the day. then three burly guys in suits came in and said they were going to wait for the owners. then a whole bunch of people came in and filled up the rest of the tables but from what i could hear they were there for a meeting, so i happily announced that if any of them decided they wanted something to eat, to just let me know.

one of the tables of eight said they wanted menus. i passed them out and went back to the kitchen area. i figured i should at least put water on every table even if they weren’t going to order, so i opened the overhead cabinet and found a number of small water pitchers filled with water and ice, so i took several of them and started distributing them. then i remembered i better put glasses all around, but everyone had already gotten their own.

i went back to get more pitchers, but couldn’t find anymore. and the natives were getting restless. i kept looking and found some vases, but no more pitchers. crap. and then one of the ladies took the bag of ice and started filling the glasses at her table until the bag was empty. i knew we didn’t have anymore ice. crap.

i figured i’d better go over and get the orders from the table of eight so i headed over there, realized i didn’t have anything to write on, went back and searched for paper, and went back to the table. the first person said she wanted something i’d never heard of, and she had to show me on the menu. the next person ordered a hamburger for him and his two grandaughters. i suggested since it would be bedtime soon that maybe they’d just want water rather than pop to drink. the mothers smiled at me. the next person ordered something i couldn’t even figure out what she was saying. i thought it was ‘beam’ or ‘dean’ but when she showed me on the menu it was ‘faur’ and i just thought WHAT am i doing here???!!!

so i went back over to the kitchen area and before i even thought about the fact there was no way i could fix food for ANYone, the owners came back. as i was telling them about everything, i woke up. thank god!

look ma, no hands ....

it's interesting the things people used to do and not think anything of it. i just watched this video of a woman replacing a tire on an airplane back in the 1920s, maybe, and she didn't have on a parachute. oh, i forgot to say the plane was IN THE AIR.

as i watched her my stomach heaved and my palms got sweaty and even though i knew how it would turn out, it was difficult to keep watching. i'm not good with heights and could never in a million years have done what she did. and i usually figure i can do about anything. but not this -- not way up there.

the ONLY thing which could have induced me to do something like that would have been if one of my kids had been in danger. that's a mom for you.

go a little ways then turn left at the tree and go awhile longer ....

how are your gps skills? we've never gotten around to getting one and now i may be glad. it seems that using a gps (using it a lot, i would guess) may turn your brain to mush.

three studies have been done which conclude that how we navigate around today may impact the way our brain functions as we age. the article talks about the spatial navigation strategy versus the stimulus-response strategy.

it also talks about grey matter and alzheimer's and the hippocampus, blah blah, but i found it interesting. it would be particularly telling if they did another study made up entirely of air traffic controllers. controllers use spatial reasoning a lot! and if that group had a smaller percentage of alzheimer's victims, you'd think the theory really had truth to it.

regardless, i enjoy using maps and envisioning routes, and finding my way around, and i don't care if i get lost. it's a quick way to learn about the vicinity. of course, the way that guys give directions and the way that gals give directions are completely different and worthy of a study by itself!

anyway, read the article -- it's food for thought.

your turn....

did you know that airports don't have to let tsa screen travelers? i was aghast when i read this -- i didn't realize there was another option, but there is -- airports can hire private screeners and a florida congressman is encouraging them to do just that.

i actually don't know what i think about private screeners doing that job. it's a thankless, complex, difficult job and there are idiots, arrogant jerks, and unpleasant people manning some of the positions. still -- they have the inside information about what the government is encountering and trying to deal with, and i'm not sure private companies would be given all the information which is surely available to the tsa managers.

no i don't like those new scanners, and the new pat-downs? oh good grief! but at the same time, what IS the answer??

dust to dust ....

something from MYS's most recent post sure caught my eye. i don't know who put it together so i'm not sure of the validity, but check this out:

better this way? or this way?

i see this web site every once-in-a-while which shows a hair and face makeover for women. sometimes they look better, but sometimes they just look different. and, honestly, sometimes they look worse. of the 48 pictures i looked at today, i decided there were only about 27 that i thought looked better.

and, really, can those women style their hair they way the professionals do? get it all poofy and laying just right? probably not, which means they are probably going to end up going back to their familiar style.

and the makeup -- yuck! always so much eye shadow and tons of foundation. just gross. and they usually leave off their glasses for the final picture ... what are they supposed to do then, stumble around? nope, the glasses will go back on.

it just feels icky to me, but then i don't like plastic surgery either. yes, you can make the most of what you've got, but sooner or later the makeup is going to come off. what then?

into the future! or somewhere ....

well, yes. i live and breathe sci-fi and fantasy. the husband and i love star wars, and i was delighted to see this little flying remote droid which a hacker put together.

and do your kids love star wars? how about this tauntaun sleeping bag?

then there's the new movie, cowboys and aliens, which is coming out next july. oh yes, i'll be in line.

maybe a previous life?

i love bagpipes. i'm not sure why, maybe it's because of that underlying drone which feels comforting. and scotland calls to me for some reason, again, not sure why, but this little bit shows how beautiful scotland is.

where did this come from?

dreams are so weird. the husband and i had been traveling around the world (which would in itself be weird) and i had noticed that no matter where we traveled, the trees were always different. they didn't look like the trees back home, yet they were still trees and some were really pretty.

when we got back home, we gave a lecture (i think it was on the lincoln campus) to 70 or 80 thousand people about the trees we had seen. i remember there were so many people that we decided to walk up and down the rows so people could hear us better and we ended up walking through a tiny bedroom with blue carpet and one window. we went to the window to finish up and i leaned out and asked if there were any questions. i could only see about 30 of the multitude, but one guy asked a question so i answered.

at some point, we left that building and were going over to the parking garage, probably to get our car although i don't know why since we had another lecture in a little bit. at any rate, the husband had to go back to the room to get something and i walked slowly through the garage. an officer stopped several people, including me, and finally let them go but said i had to go with him. we walked up to the next level, which was the top, and i said i needed to call my husband and let him know where i was. the officer said i couldn't do that. about that time the husband came walking down the sidewalk and i waved and said hi. he looked around for the stairs so he could come up and the officer got irritated. i told him i wanted to see his credentials and he refused. i asked where his name tag was and he got angry. i said i wasn't going anywhere with him since i thought he was an imposter and i turned around to head for the stairs. then i woke up.

i can either what or what??

airport security just gets tighter and tighter, but should it? it's a tough issue for everyone to deal with, and now some people are protesting the new scanning technology. i don't like the idea of that equipment either but what is the alternative? decent people have gone along with all kinds of inconvenience because of the terrorist threat, but maybe we should start looking outside the box for answers since the answers we've used so far aren't that great. on the other hand, how do you think terrorists would effect their drama if people quit flying? that can really dredge up some unpleasant thoughts.

uhhh, what?

and now a little something from our furry friends ...

dog.

cat.

horse.

parrot.

i want to say one word to you, just one word. are you listening? plastics.

jennifer grey is pretty, nose job or not. but there is absolutely no way nadya suleman looks ANYthing like angelina jolie!

some of these people make you cringe (jocelyn wildenstein), some of them make you go 'oh yuck' (donatella), some of them make you shake your head (david gest, for more reasons than his plastic), some of them make you laugh (danielle/melan), and some of them leave you jaw-droppingly astonished (amanda, where is your husband the joker?)!

curious? here you go .... but only if you're brave or love horror movies.

o beautiful for spacious skies ....

this country is so beautiful!! in case it's been awhile since you thought about our national parks or the various terrains here for us to enjoy, give yourself a treat and go here. then scroll down to the 23 pictures at the bottom and take a lovely little vacation!

sunshine

i kept meaning to post this all week. i don't spend a lot of time thinking about the sun and don't spend any time reading about it. i think it's scary and you aren't supposed to get close to it and you aren't supposed to look at it and, ooohh monsters.

that said, these images are so very intriguing. they make me want to stick my finger into the sun and swish it around to see what kind of patterns i can make. hunh ... yeah .....

upper crust

since i shop online for everything except groceries, i got a lot of catalogs from companies i've never heard of -- per list-selling and all that.

this one just had me totally shaking my head. i don't begin to have enough money to shop with them and besides .... why would i want to? they have one flower arrangement (moss, 2 roses, a twig, some leaves, couple of mushrooms) for $124. they have a small tray with 2 candles, some twigs, and a bole of cotton for $68. there are 3 votives and twenty 3 1/2" candles for $98.

but enough of the ordinary stuff. they also have 3 ceramic bowls for $98, a wooden bowl with 3 packages of soup mix and a small soup cookbook for $198, a tiny ceramic colander to rinse off your berries for $64, 4 caramel apples for $48, 12 oz of sesame seed brittle on a platter for $98, a pound of pistachios for $38, and a branding iron with your own logo at no given price although if your order totals more than $1,000 they'll waive the one-time set-up fee of $395.

maybe i'm not being fair, after all there are people out there who buy this stuff. but then again, i'm only expressing my own opinion so fairness doesn't enter into it. so -- icky, patooey, gaaack! i'm not spending my money there.

what does that mean?

need something to lighten your day? here are some signs from around the world.

oh for pete's sake ....

i was just reading an article about superstition and the paranormal. i don't have a problem with people believing in ghosts or bigfoot or ufos. as long as people in charge aren't burning people at the stake for their beliefs, and the far-out beliefs aren't hurting anyone, i don't think it's a big deal. live and let live.

it's surprising to me, though, to read this quote: "regardless of the person or the phenomenon, paranormal experiences are purely quirks of the human brain" so says michael shermer who publishes skeptic magazine. i'm not going to bother checking out this guy or his credentials, but really. wrapping it up so neat and tidy just isn't the way the world works.

quantum physics is shadowy and mysterious yet has stood up to rigorous testing. how egotistical for smarmy shermer to declare that paranormal things are just imagined. making this simplistic ruling which discounts and discredits people, that is something that irritates me. buzz off, small man.

oh so cute!

are you having a bad day? sick of the world? can't stand people or things and just want to be left alone?

let's see if we can lighten your mood. go here and be sure to watch the videos.

dr. strangehand ...

this is just hard to believe. an independent hand! i can't give you the exact website because it only comes up as http://bodyodd.msnbc.msn.com/ but the title is "when one hand develops a mind of its own". so go to the website and see if you can find your way to the article. it's creepy ... and hilarious!

yay! pix!

these are definitely cool!  pictures that people took of things that interested them. i liked the first one, the third, the sixth, the seventh, and the ninth.

then there's this series.  i liked the first and last. why were they their favorites?

wow!

wow! there's some interesting stuff in this world!

people can do amazing things -- scary, too.

this was back when, but still -- pretty funny.

remember when they first started making robots?

this is for the husband.

how could i have forgotten?

this is a great article on an old passion. it's just not too neat to be on the receiving end.

how fun!

MYS sent some very interesting articles!

one is of a family living in the tippy-top of a pointed building in downtown seattle -- you HAVE to see this (complete with chihuly)!

and the other is of a woman living in a teeny-tiny studio -- very cool!

great tunes

you know, sometimes you just have to take an hour or so and check out Improv Everywhere.

it shows that life is good and so are people.

i was right!

this grand design book really is a curious and thought-provoking book. i remember one of my high school teacher's saying, just before the end of class one day, that the shortest distance between two points isn't always a straight line. i was floored. how can this be?

i was so taken by his statement that it's the only thing i remembered from ANY of my math classes from 9th grade on. i didn't care for math, having lost lots of ground when i moved in 7th grade and ended up with this HORRIBLE teacher who knew absolutely nothing about math and couldn't answer any of my questions. i was in tears because i knew it was the end of math and me.

but back to the straight line -- i always remembered his comment and one day back in about 1989 when we were hiking in the cascades, i finally realized i knew what his comment meant. we were following a trail along a mountainside (straight up on the left, straight down on the right) and i could see the trail we would be reaching shortly, across the valley on the right. our path was going to curve back around almost 180 degrees.

well, it was obvious! it was much shorter to continue on our drastically curving trail than to cut off to the right, in a straight line which just happened to go down and back up. it was so cool to KNOW that.

and here it is on page 101 of hawking's book -- "The geometry of curved spaces such as the earth's surface is not the Euclidean geometry we are familiar with." it goes on to show an intriguing diagram and then explains that if you took a route from new york to madrid on a flat map, it would be a straight line of 3,707 miles. but because the earth curves, the shortest distance is 3,605 miles and you go n.e. then e. and then s.e.

validation! by no less than hawking himself! yay!!!

water woes

 i thought this map was interesting (above). it shows estimations of drought conditions in 2030+.


the u.s. is going to be hard-hit, especially southern south dakota/northern nebraska and the california coastline.


Even though they're tiny and hard to see, you might be able to compare your area on the colored map to google's map below to see how your area will fare.

the article was worrisome, although i'm not sure what a person should do about it. move north and stake your claim, i guess.

we make our own jokes

at lunch today the husband and i were discussing going to mars and not coming back. we both thought it wasn't something we'd do. then he said if an alien came along and said he'd fly the husband to far-away worlds and he'd see things he couldn't even imagine, he'd be mighty tempted to take the offer.

we talked about what situations would make our names go down in history. then he commented that even if we made the history books people probably wouldn't remember our names for long. i mean, how many people landed on the moon and could we remember their names?

hmmm .... we thought about it a minute then i said, 'bob armstrong?' just teasing. and he said, 'yes, neil armstrong.' and i laughed and said that i really thought it was lance armstrong, and he said, 'yes, lance armstrong and buzz lightyear.'

the future is coming ....

want to see a machine made out of legos, build a house made out of legos? go here (background article here) ... and be sure to stay until the end.

hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to mars we go ....

i read an article today about the idea of going to mars ..... and not returning.

they likened it to christopher columbus who sailed off, not at all sure of where he was going or what he'd find. to a certain extent i agree with that thought. new explorations are necessarily into the unknown, and there's a real likelihood you won't make it back.

still .... the idea of going to mars -- as tantalizing as it seems at first -- would almost have to be really, really depressing. i mean, no clouds, no trees, no buildings, no animals. so much sameness. maybe someone who grew up in the sahara could handle it, but i'm pretty sure i could not.

they mused about the possibility that the only people willing to go on that one-way trip would be oldsters, who didn't really have that much to lose with not returning to earth. being with a bunch of oldsters might, in itself, be depressing, and sooner or later someone would get stuck taking care of everyone else.

a number of possibilities and many things to think about. if they knock on your door and ask if you want to go along for the ride, what are you going to say?

overheard in ny

Hobo sitting against building: Hey! You!
Girl walking by: Yeah?
Hobo: Want to go jump in the East River with me?
Girl, stopping and looking at him: Not a bad idea. Maybe later.
-------
Subway employee: And what kind of cheese would you like on your turkey?
Woman: Tomato.
-------
Guy: You should've sat at my end of the counter. I'm rich and well hung.
Girl: You should've sat at my end. It doesn't turn people into assholes.
-------
Girl #1: You know my half birthday was yesterday?!
Girl #2: Yeah! So you're 18 and a quarter!
Girl #1: I'm 18 and two thirds!
-------
Redhead girl: No, I totally want you to meet him -- I just don't want him to meet you.
-------
Guy to friend: I went to the anarchists' meeting, but they turned out to just be a group of spoiled, white, middle-class kids.
-------
Girl #1: Ugh, the economy is so bad I don't know how I'm going to get through the recession.
Girl #2: Oh my god, I know! I mean, I lost my job and now my parents are only giving me $50 allowance a week!
Girl #1: Wow, that's crazy! Only $50?

let's see -- ignorant? misogynistic? insane?

did you read about the islamic cleric who said there's never rape in a marriage? i was disgusted and shook my head.

and now there's a headline in which an islamic court says it's okay for a man to beat his wife as long as he doesn't leave any marks.

it's dogma like that which leaves me not feeling very friendly toward these people. i remember reading back in  my college days where an ethnocentric person is one who feels his group or beliefs are superior to others. being ethnocentric was regarded as not being a good thing.

weeeeeelll, do any religions in america say it's okay to beat your wife or rape her? not that i know of. especially not in the mainstream.

if islam teachings run along these lines, then let's just say there aren't enough bytes to express my ethnocentricism about it. still .... gaaack!

clever old guy

the husband has a friend who's dying. he's lived a full life -- teacher and priest, among other things. he's never married but has been active in whatever community he's lived in and is well-read and well-spoken.

the husband enjoys speaking with this man and, since he's 84 or so, enjoys listening to him talk about various things. he has a wry sense of humor.

he hadn't been feeling well and was determined to keep out of hospitals, so he hadn't been crazy about seeing the doctor. he finally had the husband take him and found out his kidneys are failing. since the dr. knew he wasn't having any part of any type of medical care, he advised him to go home and reach out to hospice to get the process started.

he's been pretty comfortable with hospice, but a little curious about the questions they asked him when they first came out. he figured they were trying to find out if he was gay. they asked about him never having been married and finally he said, "I know I'm not gay. I know I'm straight, but I've never had a woman interested in me. So I guess I'm kinda in between straight and gay. I'm stray." ...wry sense of humor.

rod serling and me ...

i've always thought things were really out there when the subject of dimensions came up. i mean, three dimensions I understand, and the fourth, well sure, that makes sense, too. but then they go on about  6, 7, 8, and even 12 dimensions and i just back away. it's too much for me and scary, too. no matter how i try to understand what they're saying, i just can't wrap my mind around it.

oh, ho! but then i was playing chuzzle last night (not to be confused with guzzle, which i don't). if you've ever played that game, it is kinda fun and while it seems innocuous, it's tricky. and while the comparison is in no way close to the real thing, i realized that what i was doing was playing in a whole bunch of dimensions at once.

since we're lifting reality anyhow, you need to imagine the three dimensions as being played out on the screen. yes, it's two dimensions, but just pretend it's three. then we add time, which makes it four. then we add color (each little chuzzle is a different color with about five or so colors being the set), which influences how we play, which makes it five dimensions. then we add right-angled configurations, which makes it six. and i suppose if we're going to be technical about it we should add in the scoring since if you use a 'hint' it subtracts from your score which might influence how you play the game -- that's seven.

whew! and it can get hard to play in seven dimensions! your mind has to shift gears constantly and after awhile, it's tiring. still ... i thought it was curious that all the manipulating i was doing in my mind made me feel like i was dealing with multiple dimensions. very curious.

not high maintenance

i've started reading The Grand Design by Hawking and Mlodinow. i'm on page 40 and so far my eyes have glazed only three times. the book is interesting and i think i'm going to really like it when they get to the part about alternate realities, something that i view as a totally cool thought.

the book is actually not quite as spellbinding as some of the stuff i read -- murder mysteries *oh yeah!*, sci-fi stories *rad, dude!*, girl porn *i'm not dead yet*, or some combination thereof. like, the stephanie plum series keeps me in stitches and i totally love detective eve dallas.  and karen marie moning -- ohmygod, that girl can write! give me a funny book or an intriguing book and i'm happy. simple pleasures ...

up, up, and aw-- ... choo, choo ....

i ran across some interesting things this week --

apparently the airlines are planning on doing away with first-class. hmmm .... that will pretty much put the kabosh on any flying that i do. after our trip in august, which we took first-class for the first time, i decided that was the only way to go. the rest of it is just a cattle call or a chicken farm.

it's too bad greed has become such a pervasive part of our lives in this country. i can remember when things were built to last and companies took pride in delivering excellent service. but now ... not so much.

so if first class goes, i won't. it will be the train or the car for a leisurely trip.

out in nature

yesterday was a gorgeous day and today promises to be the same! there's nothing as pretty as a pretty day in this small town -- no traffic, blue skies, pretty shoreline, few people. it's really a lovely experience. if i had grown up here, i would have learned how to sail and do the boat thing. there's too much to learn, water-navigation-wise, at this late date so ... too bad. and besides -- no energy. but still, a pretty day here is totally satisfying.

partay!

we went to visit the grandkids last saturday to celebrate the grandaughter's birthday. she's three as of today. she's a beautiful, brilliant, smiling little sweetheart and it's hard to wait and see what she does with her life.

grandson is growing like crazy and it looks like he's going to give her a run for the money. it sort of seems like he's going to be the walk-softly-and-carry-a-big-stick type. and you ought to see his smile -- a sweet little piece of heaven.

be a boy scout

remember what i said about survival?  here's another guide.

it talks about survival, do-it-yourself medicine, making friends, keeping from getting killed, and the bible. i particularly liked the humor with the last one.

i suggest we go with plan b, r2 ....

this is a pretty cute article about survival, although it may not make much sense unless you watch a lot of movies.

why would they do this?

for whatever reason, i don't usually think of 'europe' as being against the u.s. boy, am i naive. read this.

medical humor

i don't know what the deal is with this group, but aren't they cute?!!!  i wonder if they sing to people when they're going under?

facebook, again

what is this service called scribd? i already do not like it since i read about the way it's getting people involved via facebook. honestly, this encroachment is bad and seems to have a life of its own. and i'm sure it will get worse.

back home

our little vacation was very nice and just the thing to relieve tension and stress. the 100-year old house we stayed in was decorated beautifully, but i was displeased by several things (soap container in downstairs bathroom was almost empty, overhead light in downstairs bedroom kept not working, there were no pans in the kitchen -- skillets, but no pans -- plus a few more things) so i would not recommend it; i mean after all, the owners in the multi-million dollar house next door weren't as giving and conscientious as the place we stayed last year or the year before, so phooey on them. the girlfriend didn't have the objections i did, but hey.

we spent time in anacortes and found a FABULOUS restaurant called ADRIFT. if you're ever in anacortes, for god's sake you need to stop there and eat. the place next door was also supposed to be very good -- gard-a-deli or something like that, but we didn't have a chance to stop there.

the library in anacortes is thriving and is open every day of the week. our library has truncated hours and isn't open in sundays, so i was jealous of the anacortes libray.

we drove down to oak harbor (kinky downtown area) and again found a good eating place -- seabolt's smokehouse seafood & deli. that's where i found the three micro-brewery beers, in cans (from colorado), that i brought back to the hubby. i don't drink but the husband offered me a sip and i thought the scotch ale was particularly tasty. we drove on south through coupeville and freeland, then headed back to the beach house.

we got there on monday and explored anacortes, stayed-in on tuesday and read all day since it was grey and dreary, went out and played in sunshine on wednesday, then packed up and played in sunshine on the way home on thursday.

we stopped at the coop in mt vernon where i transferred the girlfriend to her hubby. i also picked up some sticky rice and checked out the boobies of one of the checkers. she had tattooed landscapes from several beloved places she had lived as she was growing up. it was colorful but strange in the extreme and i was reluctant to stare and observe her statement, since i'm not a man (girlfriend's husband got the story).

we had gotten our flu shots, which we try to do when we're out in late september, a pretty good haul of used books, got caught up on family and problems, and ended up having a really great time! yay, girlfriends!!

oh yeah!

the girlfriend and i are heading off on our annual get-away today. we're heading over to a beach house and will spend four days talking, reading, eating, shopping, talking, exploring, walking on the beach, and talking. it will be fun!

i need an avatar

i went to see Avatar again this afternoon. this is only my second time. it was in 3-d like the first time and it was just as fabulous. there was sooooo much i'd forgotten, and the visuals were just as stunning as the first time. i want to go there and ride on one of those flying bird/dragon things.

i was looking at some of the trivia on imdb and it mentioned the huangshan mountain inspired some of the 'scapes. go to google images and type that in -- the pix are truly beautiful. except for the graffiti.

where's the ladder...

i forgot to mention this article i saw about the coolest way we can all help to fight global warming -- just paint your roof white. it's really interesting reading, and i can't understand why anyone would be against it. i mean, such a small thing could make a big difference.

soaring ever upward... for a little bit

MYS put this video on his blog and it is definitely good enough to repeat! enjoy!!  oh yes, and the music is good, too!

deadly quiet

if you were asked where the most toxic place in america was, what would you say? i would probably decide it was somewhere around niagra falls. or anyplace two or more republicans were meeting.

it appears the most toxic place is the state of my birth -- oklahoma! picher, oklahoma to be exact, way up in the northeastrn corner. and the toxicity is from mining lead and zinc, and the chat piles and dust that was left behind.

i went to google maps and was surprised to see white globs all around the town when i looked at the satellite version. and i was amazed to see that i could get right down on the streets with the little man. i mean ... picher. there are some bigger places that i can't use the little man on. wonders will never cease.

the article is an interesting mix of nostalgia, rebellion, and gumption. the bit about the BIA is disgusting, but that's par for the course. at any rate, i invite you to sit a spell and read.

oh yes!

i just saw a couple of interesting things.

1) if you're in san francisco, you really need to go to the california academy of sciences building. this video will tell you about the construction of the place, and this very-well-done web site is theirs. i would love to visit! and their wine-and-dine tour must be great!

2) i can't wait to see this movie . i mean, i know johnny depp can be really funny, but with angelina jolie? the trailer makes me want to see it!

where are those instruction?!

i remember several years back that i bought a walkman so i could listen to music while i walked.  when i took it out of its packaging, however, it seemed to be configured a little weird. i mean, i could get the whole thing put together, but when i put it on there was absolutely NO slack! it felt weird and i couldn't figure out what the deal was so i just said oh well and headed out for my walk. i began to feel really conspicuous though because the short lead meant i had to scrunch my shoulders and keep my head down. the walk definitely didn't last very long and i didn't use it again.

quite some time later the husband borrowed it. i didn't think he'd do well with it, but he got along fine. when i asked him about it and mentioned the problem i'd had, he couldn't help but laugh as he showed me the extra adjustment i had to make to lengthen the cord.  *sigh*

get your shots

there appear to be a number of young parents who do not belive in vaccinations. that's unfortunate. i've been vaccinated for just about everything i should be and it hasn't proven to be harmful. it looks like whooping cough (pertussis) is making a comeback in the number of victims it acquires. vaccinate your kids.

pahtooey

ahhhhh, facebook's revenge.

i have disliked facebook since the beginning, really, and once i found out they didn't care one single bit about privacy, i really disliked it. everytime i would read about changes being made and what a person should do to try to keep their stuff private, i would make those changes. the last changes i made must have pissed them off seeing as how there's no account for me on facebook anymore. at least not one i can access which is the same thing.

it just underscores how i feel about facebook -- immature, inconsiderate, greedy, disrespectful, and undoubtedly republican.

excellent music

i like a number of things Zero Cult has done and when i saw this video of theirs this morning, i just had to share it with you.  beautiful images, although there's no way i understood the math.  thank you low mercury on facebook (as much as i hate facebook).

old-fashioned values

MYS is going off to los alamos national lab, and there is so much secret stuff there the potential for abuse is large. i recently saw, in fact, where an ex-employee has been charged with narious deeds. i grew up believing in integrity and i've seen during my many years that a certain portion of the population does not. that is truly unfortunate. i feel blessed that our kids adhere to our values and believe in honor, integrity, kindness, and doing your best.

foot comfort

i love haflinger's shoes. they fit my foot perfectly, i can wear them all day, and they're beyond comfortable. the only drawback is that they're so hard to find online. zappos doesn't carry them and neither does planet shoes, both sites of which do carry brands i consider. the one fairly reliable source i've found is dodds shoe company in laramie wyoming. yeah, i know, who'd have thought. but they carry a number of sought-after brands and if you're searching through zappos and planet shoes, remember to also check out www.doddsshoe.com. especially if you're looking for haflinger!

a good example

MYS posted a video which is think is pretty great, especially since it's for a city government. it's for the city of toronto and whoever decided to do it like this, made an excellent decision! do any of our cities have something this entertaining and effective? probably not -- too afraid of some kind of lawsuit maybe. either that or absolutely no imagination.

oh yummy!

do you like peppermint candy? i prefer the kind which is soft and just sorta melts in your mouth. you can get a big jar of it here. it's actually the perfect peppermint stick and a jar of it can last you a long while if you can control your rapaciousness. not an easy task, especially with this stuff, but you can either have it all now or have a little bit for a loooooong while.

on schedule

the girlfriend and i are planning another get-away this year. in fact, we'll be getting away at the end of this month. we'll do a little shopping, a little exploring, a little walking along the beach, a little reading, and plenty of talking. it'll be fun!

be prepared

i bring you a public service message:  September is National Preparedness Month. go to Ready.gov  to see how to put together a plan in case of disaster.

glad i'm not rich

i occasionally get some catalogs which are for the upper crust. by that i mean the clothes are fairly expensive. i recently got a new catalog which i've never heard of -- maus&hoffman.

while i looked through the women's section (8 pages as opposed to 52 for the men), i saw some of the ugliest fashions i've ever seen. and they weren't cheap. there were some god-awful blouses for $150, other blouses for $298, a belt for $425, an ugly blazer for $528, a god-awful business jacket for $1,448, a short coat for $898, and a mini-scarf for $75. finally -- something i could afford. although, who'd want to?  ugly, ugly, ugly!

undecided

i just read where a woman had twin boys at age 60. i'm not sure how i feel about that.