From my Excite start page:
This is an inside joke; so much "inside" that it's only inside my head and no one else is privy to the humor. (Well, "humor" might be stretching it some)
The first time I think I ever heard the word being used (and not just in a book) was on the Howard Stern show and as his guests were these two goofballs who wanted Stern to use their song in his movie. The song was titled "Feel My Ubiquity". The title was intriguing, but the song sucked big-time. (so does Stern, but....) They said, in a play on the song title, that they wanted the song "Feel My Ubiquity" to be ubiquitous.
I'm sure they confused a lot of folks with that word; after all, it's not a common one. What they should have said what they desired for their tune was for it to become another "Hotel California".
A couple of years ago I was writing some commentary to go along with a presentation of my pics in an MSN Group and wanted to describe the ugly utility poles and lines that are in the background of many photos I take and want to take, especially at the Groom Cross. It wasn't a day later when I was doing the same thing for something else and was looking to describe those posts and wires and thought "Ubiquitous" will work just fine...again!
Since that time, I've used the word a little TOO much...in essence, being ubiquitous with the word "ubiquitious".
September 6, 2007
Feel My Ubiquity
They Cast Lots
I've also not taken any good photos of the bronze plaques anchored in blocks of granite around each station. I would like to make a presentation someday of each station and need these all to look somewhat consistent. My best efforts, that is to say, the ones that were the clearest and truest to the actual color, had part of a necessary bit chopped off or had my big feet in them.
Click any photo for a larger view.
There's not a great perspective to take the photo of this station; any more to the right would have the gift shop in the background. As it is, I-40 and at times the traffic can be seen.
The detail is much more impressive as you get closer. I'm sure, since this is a "double" bronze, that it's one of those that (I was told) cost upwards of $30,000.
Jesus, exhausted from the labor of carrying the cross, bleeding from hundreds of cuts from vicious lashings, shows a sad resignation. He knows His greatest torment is yet to come.
The headdress/helmet of the Roman guard is almost comical, but then one's eyes drop to his face.
A mean, cruel face, insensitive to his captive's suffering. The exaggerated wrinkles in his face show a face prone not to laughter, but to sneers and scowls. He loved his horrible job.
And then they gambled for His clothes.
September 5, 2007
Great Tips!
A new feature, probably unwanted; the best of my email forwards.
Don't worry, there won't be a lot of 'em.
I did say "the best".
GREAT TIPS:
1. Reheat Pizza Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove , set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.
2. Easy Deviled Eggs Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal , mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients , reseal , keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly , cut the tip of the baggy , squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.
3. Expanding Frosting When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store , whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.
4. Reheating refrigerated bread To warm biscuits , pancakes , or muffins that were refrigerated , place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.
5. Newspaper weeds away Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers put layers around the plants overlapping as you go cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not get through wet newspapers.
6. Broken Glass Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily.
7. No More Mosquitoes Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.
8. Squirrel Away! To keep squirrels from eating your plants sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it.
9. Flexible vacuum To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.
10. Reducing Static Cling Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and -- ta da! -- static is gone.
11. Measuring Cups Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.
12. Foggy Windshield? Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car. When the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!
13. Reopening envelope If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Viola! It unseals easily.
14. Conditioner Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's a lot cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair...
15. Goodbye Fruit Flies To get rid of pesky fruit flies , take a small glass fill it 1/2' with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid , mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!
16. Get Rid of Ants Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it 'home', can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works & you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!
17. INFO ABOUT CLOTHES DRYERS The heating unit went out on my dryer! The gentleman that fixes things around the house for us told us that he wanted to show us something and he went over to the dryer and pulled out the lint filter. It was clean. (I always clean the lint from the filter after every load clothes.) He told us that he wanted to show us something; he took the filter over to the sink, ran hot water over it. The lint filter is made of a mesh material - I'm sure you know what your dryer's lint filter looks like.
WELL... the hot water just sat on top of the mesh! It didn't go through it at all! He told us that dryer sheets cause a film over that mesh that's what burns out the heating unit. You can't SEE the film , but it's there. It's what is in the dryer sheets to make your clothes soft and static free - that nice fragrance too, you know how they can feel waxy when you take them out of the box, well this stuff builds up on your clothes and on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryer units to catch fire & potentially burn your house down with it!
He said the best way to keep your dryer working for a very long time (& to keep your electric bill lower) is to take that filter out & wash it with hot soapy water & an old toothbrush(or other brush) at least every six months. He said that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as long! How about that!?! Learn something new everyday! I certainly didn't know dryer sheets would do that. So , I thought I'd share!
Note: I went to my dryer & tested my screen by running water on it. The water ran through a little bit but mostly collected all the water in the mesh screen. I washed it with warm soapy water & a nylon brush & I had it done in 30 seconds. Then when I rinsed it the water ran right Thru the screen! There wasn't any puddling at all! That repairman knew what he was talking about!
September 4, 2007
I'm Milking These Goats
Uh, milking these goat photos, should say, for all they're worth, anyway.
Here's another shot, very similar to another one of the same goat.
But, I HAVE milked a goat. We had goats when I was growing up; oh, not a lot of 'em, but my dad (as he was prone to do) did some trading for a few of them. I think he had some sort of vision of being a goat rancher, or maybe he was just drunk as a skunk when he traded for them. We did have a nanny and I milked her for my dad's now-and-then glass of raw goat milk. Gag. My show pig and the cats and dogs we always had got the most of it until the nanny had a kid.
I remember it well; I had just turned 16, got my driver's license and a beat up '62 Pontiac Tempest (similar to a Corvair) for fifty bucks. Me 'n Dad had worked on that thing for quite a while, overhauling the tranny and fixin' some cancer spots on it and painting it back to the surprisingly lovely original maroon color. All-in-all, it was a pretty good job, considerin' it had all been done in the garage.
Then we got the goats.
Goats, as you may or may not know, are climbers, and they shunned all of our other vehicles in order to perch on top of my new/used car. Of course, the paint job went to hell under their cloven hoofs, and no matter what I did to them -- siccin' the dog on 'em, runnin' out and yellin' at them or even pepperin' 'em with my trusty childhood Daisy BB gun did the trick and kept them off the top of my precious little car.
The little female goats were pretty sweet, other than the fact that they enjoyed using my Pontiac as a substitute for a rocky craig. The billy, though...he was a piece of work. I do not know why male goats do this, but he was like all the others I've seen or heard about, and liked to pee on his whiskers and consequently stunk to high heaven. It's supposed to be an attraction to female goats, but I'm not for sure that it'd work on human girls.
I got the pressure to reach MY chin, but I can't grow a beard anyway, so.....
That goat sure tasted good though, later that summer, barbequed for several hours over hot coals in a pit I gladly helped dig in an empty spot out in the garden. This came about when, after Dad had bought a nice, but used Chrysler, the goats found it to be a better vantage point than my car. The female goats escaped the billy's fate, being traded to some Mexican for an old Dodge pickup. Come to think of it, they probably wound up in tamales anyway.
Bet they were good.
(this is basically the text of an email I sent to my friend Barb after she sent me some photos of her own new goats. I had to clean it up to post it here.)
