A Picnic Every Day

I used to roughneck for a man named Delmer Miller; he was quite a colorful character and had part of his nose missing from a long-ago fight. He was rough-edged, but had a great sense of humor. (and could also be petulant and childish, as you'll see) I was single when I worked for him and like most bachelors, my lunch box didn't hold a decent meal - or the love - that most married men's lunch boxes had in them. I often went out to work with not much to eat, sometimes just a few packages of cheese crackers and a couple of pieces of fruit.

After missing many meals because I would sleep right up until the time to go to work, I got in the habit of making a couple of sandwiches when I got home, then putting them in the fridge. I also bought some small Tupperware containers from my sister and filled them with slices of tomato and lettuce so they wouldn't make my bread soggy until I was ready to eat my sandwiches. I also learned to use mustard on my sandwiches because on hot summer nights mayo or salad dressing would spoil before it was time to eat.

Sometimes while eating our lunch - when we had time to eat it* - Delmer would quip "Ain't this great? A picnic every day!"

It was funny the first few times we heard it, but...

*(I used to work for an old man and we once had some down-hole trouble on the rig and for several nights we didn't even have time to eat our lunch.  One of the other roughnecks was bitching about it on the ride home and the old man told him "Hell, boy...I give you two chances to eat every day!"  "I'd like to know when THAT is!" sniffed my co-worker. "Well..." dryly replied the old driller, "Once on the way out to the rig and the other on the way back.")

Delmer had a wife who absolutely doted on him and once when I brought out some stroganoff my mom had given me when I ate supper with them, told his wife that he too wanted something else besides sandwiches in his lunch box. That day, while Delmer was asleep, she cooked a big batch of stew and sent some out in a wide-mouth thermos.  She had also baked some cornbread and had included a couple of big slices of that, too. He ate every bite and when he got in that morning, gave her a kiss on the cheek and told her it was great.

The next night he opened up his lunch box and found another thermos full of the stew. (like I said, she had made a big batch of it) He complained about it, but still ate it.  The next night he opened up his lunch, muttering that there had better not be any more stew, but when he opened up the thermos...yep, more stew.

In a fit, he poured out the thermos into the lunch box, crumbled up the cornbread and stirred it all up with a spoon, then closed the lid, lit a cigarette and got a cup of coffee.   He was in a bad mood the rest of the shift and we tried our best to stay away from him.

I knew there would be fireworks when he got home and confronted his wife and I knew I really shouldn't, but I followed him inside before getting in my own vehicle and going home.  She greeted me and tried to kiss Delmer, but he shrugged her off and plopped the lunch box down on the table.  She asked what was wrong and he said he was hungry and angry that she had put "the same damn thing" in his lunch again.  She opened up the lunch box and even though her eyes narrowed in anger, she didn't say anything about the mess inside the box but asked "Well, what DO you want in your lunch?"

"I don't care." Delmer said. "Just sumpthin' different."

That night when we all sat down to eat, Delmer was telling the rest of the guys, also bachelors like me, how he had "handled his old lady" and that we should take lessons.  "You'd better believe there's sumpthin' different in here tonight!" he bragged.

There was.  It was a coconut and a hammer.

Russian Through My Vacation

Moscow?  Really?

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Your Summer Vacation is Moscow

You are vivacious and high-spirited. You take a breezy approach to living your life. You take life by the horns and are big on taking a chance. You aren't going to sit at home bored! You are a truly extroverted person. People matter to you, and you get so energized from socializing. You are downright amusing. Your odd sense of humor gets people laughing.

What's Your European Summer Vacation?

Blogthings: Take a Quiz. Annoy Your Friends.

I've been to the Moscow in Kansas and I never want to go back. We played a football game there when I was a junior in h.s. and there was freezing drizzle all through the game. We had them down 20-0 at the half. Kansas football had a rule that if there was bad weather or one team was handily beating the other and both teams agreed, the game could be stopped at halftime. When our coach came into the locker room after talking with the Moscow coach and told us we had to keep playing, I quickly changed my soggy socks for my dry "street" socks. They became soaked in a matter of seconds and I went home with no socks, chilled to the bone and shivering on our old, cold ancient bus. I've been miserable since then, but that's in the top five of all-time misery.

Here's one of the best Beatles songs, IMHO. The best one with the song and footage of the group in Russia had the embed code disabled.

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Heil to the Cheap Laugh

I saw an article earlier about how today is the anniversary of the death of Adolf Hitler by suicide in his bunker in 1945. I'm sure it was just a coincidence, but Family Guy had an episode just last night with this clip:



Even as horrible as is the subject matter, both suicide and Hitler, I couldn't help but laugh.

Shame on me.

nosh

nosh  [nosh]

verb (used without object)
1. to snack or eat between meals.

verb (used with object)
2. to snack on: They noshed peanuts and cookies while watching television.

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When I first saw this entry in this blog's Word of the Day feed (in the right-hand column), I had to laugh. It's not a word I would ordinarily use - and it's not one used in the circles I run in - but I do often use it, only no one hears it.

"No one" except the Beej, my old cat-varmint.  He's not the brightest animal I've ever been around and isn't even the smartest cat I've ever owned.  My old B-cat knew several words but he reacted the most to "chicken?" and would go nuts.  I swear, he could smell a pkg. of KFC takeout before I even opened up the car door.  He also knew "bird" and when I'd say it, he'd make that little sound most cats do when they see a bird, along with a quiver of the mouth.

The Beej knows "outside?" and will go to the door if that's where he wants to go and will run into another room if he doesn't want to go out.  He also knows "hungry?" and will go to his food bowl if I say that.  He also knows "nosh" and when I ask "Wouldja like a nosh?", he perks up because he knows he's getting a treat or two from a pkg. of Meow Mix "Ocean Explosion" seafood-flavored treats. 

They're something I've always bought him;  they're only a buck for a pkg. at the dollar store and I've found that it's a good way to get him to eat leftover food in his bowl at which he'd ordinarily turn up his nose.  I just say "Nosh?" and sprinkle a few on the perfectly good cat food - put out only an hour or two before - and he'll finish up the food. (mostly)

The Beej has always been wary of strangers; the first time my British friend Elle came over to see me, he would have nothing to do with her. I gave her a pkg. of the treats and told her to call to him, speaking his name and saying "Nosh?" I watched her coax him to her with the treats, then went to take a shower.  As I left the room, she was petting him and he was content with being fussed over.

About ten minutes later, I was rinsing off when she frantically called through the door "Come here...B's sick!"  I jumped out of the shower, grabbed a towel and went to see what was wrong with my cat.  He had thrown up several times and was at the door, wanting out, still retching.  I went ahead and let him out, then noticed the package of treats laying on the floor.  I picked it up and found it was empty;  she had fed the entire contents to him!

I knew he'd be all right and looking out the door, could see him eating a few blades of grass as cats (and dogs) will often do when their stomach is upset.  I told her she shouldn't feed him more than a few at a time, that they must be very rich. I figured it was probably the same as eating a box of chocolates, a couple of pieces of pie followed by a huge slice of cake washed down by a double milkshake....just too rich for him all at once.

It didn't turn him off the things, though;  he'd still eat the entire pkg. if I fed it to him.

The Weight - The Band

To celebrate slimming this blog down a little by deleting some modules and unneeded graphics and scripts (which decreased load time from 4+ seconds to a little over one second with my connection), here's a great classic tune.

I took a load off.  Not a big one, but some.

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Footie & Football Fouls

I've got a good online friend from England - her nickname is "Minnie". She's a devoted fan of the Chelsea soccer (footie) team. A long time ago when we were chatting on IM, she asked if I followed soccer and if so, what team did I like. I allowed as I really didn't like soccer all that much, but if I did, I might follow Arsenal because that was such a cool name for a team.

Oops, wrong answer. I knew soccer fans were...well, "fanatical" about their teams, but I didn't know about the hatred they could have for other teams. (I like American football, but have grown less and less interested in all sports as I've grown older. I do follow the Dallas Cowboys and have been a fan since I was a young boy, but I don't watch them if they're playing badly. Why would I want to suffer through that? Personally, I don't "hate" other NFL teams, but will admit to disliking Philadelphia mostly because of their obnoxious fans) It wasn't very long until I got a pkg. in the mail from my British friend; in it were two Chelsea jerseys, one white and one blue. My allegiance to a particular footie team had been decided for me!

Chelsea played Barcelona yesterday; I wasn't for sure what was at stake, but I did some research and found out it was an important match (the Champions League Semifinal) and that the team from Spain was the World Cup Champs. (was? were? The British form of singular/plural confuses me a little. Where Americans would say "Chelsea is a great team.", the Brits would say "Chelsea are a great team." I guess it's something to do with the former thinking of a team as a singular unit while the latter thinks of a team being individual players. Just always found that odd. It's almost like the USA being considered a union of individual states pre-Civil War - "The United States ARE..." and afterwards being thought of as a single entity "The United States IS....")

Anyway....I watched a little bit of the match, but was confused a little bit by the Barcelona squad being able to keep the ball near the Chelsea goal as much as they were. I then found out that John Terry, a Chelsea star player, had been given a "red card" - being ejected from the match for a flagrant foul on a Barcelona player, Sanchez. Here's a video of the infraction:




Good Grief, that wasn't much more than a love tap.  Sanchez deserved an Oscar for that acting performance.  Terry could have shot him with a pistol and he wouldn't have gone down that fast. 

As said, Terry was ejected from the match.  I didn't know that a team would have to play short-handed the rest of the game.  That doesn't seem right.  Chelsea went on to play great defense and eventually knotted the score at 2-2.  I know next to nothing about the game and even less about how that can be considered a win, but that's what happened and Chelsea moves on into the playoffs.

(I also don't understand how the various leagues work - my friend Min tried to explain it to me once but I was more confused after the explanation than I was before.  I remember thinking at the time it would be like trying to explain the game of baseball to one of those remote Amazonian tribes. I did catch on that the worst teams have to "drop down" into another league and that sounds like a good deal to me and wish they'd try it in the NFL.)

The Terry "foul" reminded me of another foul committed by Albert Haynesworth, then of the Tennessee Titans,  against Andre Gurode of the Dallas Cowboys from a few years ago.




What Terry did paled in comparison, wouldn't you say?

Note: Doing a little dab of research on this post has made me much more knowledgeable about soccer.  I still don't know much, but I know more than I did yesterday.  Now I need to find out what the fans sing during soccer matches.  I watched a bit of a Liverpool match (scousers!) a couple of years ago and heard them singing "You'll Never Walk Alone".   Odd. 

I haven't asked her, but I bet my British friend Min might think Liverpool should sing the chorus of "Hair Of The Dog".

Firefox Make Link Add-on

I've had this new computer for a little over a week now and have been trying to d/l all my programs I like.  Some were free when I downloaded them and are now not free. -sigh- I guess I'll either have to fork over the cash or learn to live without them. 

I've also been trying to configure my Firefox browser the way I like it.  I hadn't noticed until the last post but when I tried to make a link, I discovered I hadn't d/l the "Make Link" add-on.

It's the most handy add-on, especially for blogging or posting in forums.  All you have to do is highlight the text you want to add a link to, then right click and select the type of code you want:



As you can see, there are several options; the html code works here in Blogger, but there are several forums I frequent that use the forum code or BB (bulletin board) code.  It's quicker than using a rich text editor.

A great add-on and I highly recommend it.

Make Link

A Texas-Sized Gripe

Since I first got on the 'net, I've been reading all sorts of memes about Texas.  Most are funny, some are stereotypes but true, but there are several that just aren't true.  I see people write that Texas is flat - not so, not even here in the Panhandle.  Part of Texas is called the Hill Country for good reason.  There are mountains in far west Texas.  Another misconception is that Texas is hot.  People who think that should spend a winter here in the top of Texas.  Another is that Texas is all desert.  Good grief.  Texas borders the Gulf of Mexico and has some lovely beaches; east Texas has loads of timber and from here to Lubbock is some of the finest farmland in the U.S.

That's OK, though...those ideas are from people who just don't know any better.  There's one thing, however, that's perpetuated by Texans themselves and I want to set the record straight.

There was a recipe post that hit my reader yesterday that finally made me decide to rant.  The post - The Texican Burger -  brought up the "what kind of coke do you want?" meme.

Me: Do you want a coke?
Not me: Yes.
Me: What kind?
Not me: Dr. Pepper.

This is such crap. I was born and raised here in Texas, lived here for over half a century and I've NEVER heard anyone say that nor been asked anything like that when ordering a soda.  If you asked for a Coke, that's what you got.  If you ordered a DP, they knew you meant Dr Pepper. (which originated in Waco, Texas, btw.)  If you asked a waitress for a strawberry coke, she would probably tell you they had Fanta or Big Red or maybe you'd get a Coke w/ strawberry flavoring added.

Maybe this all stems from the popularity of Coca-Cola and being asked if you would like a coke.  "Yeah, gimme a DP."  That's the only thing I can think of that comes close to "What kind of coke...?" meme.

I belong to a couple of Texas Facebook groups which have posted this among other Texas "truths".  Along with this (and that Texans all drive pickups with gun racks and school lets out during hunting season or that all the women are blonde and have "big hair"), they also state that "true Texans" don't say "soda" or "pop" or "soda pop". Like I said, I'm a native Texan and I say soda and pop and soda pop.

Do a search for "texas what kind of coke do you want" and you'll see thousands of posts that continue this idiotic idea.  Maybe there's something to the stereotype that Texans are stupid - maybe I've just grown up around the smarter ones and the rest of Texas is filled with dumb asses.

Not Eggzactly Right

You Are a Poached Egg

You are a competent and successful person. You are obsessed with making sure your life is well organized and scheduled. You have an incredible sense of focus and determination. You don't let yourself make many mistakes. You are a high achiever. You like to challenge yourself, and you get great satisfaction from being the best at something. While you have high standards, you aren't really all that competitive. You only compete with yourself.

What Kind of Eggs Are You?

Blogthings: If Quizzes Are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Take Quizzes

We're Having a Gay Old Time!

Updated original post from April '06. The links to the "Love God's Way" website seem to be invalid, now, sorry.

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This blog has been getting quite a few hits on the "A Rather Queer Email" post I made a week or so ago, coming in from Google searches (we're #2!! If you can't be Hertz, might as well be Avis!), most likely from their having received the same email as I did.

I was thinking about writing a post on Phelps, that despicable Kansas preacher and his "God Hates Fags" website. It's beyond comprehension how someone can call themself a Christian, yet be so full of hate.

(as I said, I find him despicable for that, but I have trouble controlling my own hatred of him when I hear of him and his congregation picketing the funerals of our fallen soldiers. I believe I couldn't turn the other cheek if he attempted to do it here. Just a warning in advance, Phelps, you sunuvabitch)

Looking for some information about his so-called "church", all the while wondering if I even want to subject my readers to something so horrible, I stumbled across what seems to be another domain he owns or is at least associated with his.

It was a page within the website, one that listed the "Bands to Watch Out For", that had me literally laughing out loud. It's a long, long list of gay bands (and sometimes with a comment in parenthesis) and includes Twisted Sister, The Grateful Dead (drugs too!), Marilyn Manson (dark gay), The Doors, Queen, Phish, The Butchies (lizbians) (Huh? "lizbians"???), The Killers, Judas Priest, The Village People (duh--oops, that's MY comment, sorry), Kansas, The Indigo Girls, Boy George (duh again!), Nirvana, Nickleback, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Wilson Phillips, Motorhead, DMX, kd lang (duh one more time) and quite a few more.

Elton John, apparently, is so gay he's listed twice.

Clay Aiken is listed, but that's not fair, because he adamantly denies it.

-snicker-

Britney Spears is listed because: (kissed Madonna) Madonna is listed, but nothing afterwards in parenthesis, because I reckon she's kissed everybody.

Ted Nugent is listed because...well, I'm not sure. He's been married twice and has fathered five children. "Cat Scratch Fever" seems to be about anything BUT gay sex. They also have (loincloth) after his name which puzzles me.

I guess that means Tarzan was gay, too. He WAS quite a swinger, come to think of it. He did seem to pay more attention to Cheetah than he did Jane. Always rollin' 'round with crocodiles, and spent a little too much time caressing elephant's trunks, too.

Frank Sinatra is on the list. Wow. I guess if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.

Cole Porter is listed. It's not been proven he was gay, not that I know of, only innuendo. I guess the website thinks he gave himself away in his music with "Anything Goes", "What is This Thing Called Love?", "You've Got That Thing" and "Blow, Gabriel, Blow".

George Michael is listed, which comes as no big surprise. What DID come as a surprise was having (Texan) after his name. I guess Michael's accent is "Across-the-Pond East Texan".

There's another page, Safe Bands. More surprises there, mainly that Pat Boone and Amy Grant aren't listed. One surprise is that Cheap Trick is listed as safe. I like Cheap Trick, but never thought of them as "safe". Wonder what Phelps would think if I went up to him and said "I want you to want ME."

Not a long list on that page, though. Blondie is listed, but it's all right with the website that "she" (Debby Harry, lead singer) says anytime you're horny just to "Call Me".

The funniest listing was Cyndi Lauper. It's A-OK for girls who just wanna have fun, as long as it's not with other girls.

OR, by themselves. Again, that's OK because while the Bible mentions Onan, it says nothing about "she bopping".

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I'm bumping this one up, because I just found the post again when searching for an unrelated one and wanted to update it. I found out something a few weeks after posting this and forgot to update it then: The gay/safe band posts were not made by a Phelps-type homophobic but rather by a gay guy who was using satire to poke fun at the "God Hates Fags" website and group. I'm pretty thick sometimes most of the time all of the time and didn't catch that. I guess I'm one of those idjits that needs a winking smiley to know when it's said in jest.

Highway Star - Deep Purple

Heard a bit of trivia on the radio the other day;  it's been 40 years since the Deep Purple album Machine Head was released.

Makes me feel old, but at least listening to this song makes me remember my youth.  It was one of my favorite songs out at the time (liked it MUCH better than the overplayed Smoke on the Water) and I loved to turn up my 8-track and put my foot down on the gas pedal.

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The Day After 4/20

Hot Problems - Double Take

936 Little Blobs

An interesting graphic showing an average US citizen's life expectancy measured in blobs.

Click on the graphic or the link below to go to the site to see some interesting facts about how the colored blobs could relate to your life and have to others.

I've spent around 36 blobs on this blog. I wasted about 72 blobs on a failed marriage. The Beej has been in my life for over 122 blobs.

Heck, I've pretty much been a blob all my life, come to think of it.

936 Blobs

I ♥ Hearts

After getting a new computer, I've had to d/l my favorite games again. When I was younger, I used to be an arcade freak, but now that I'm older I find I don't care all that much about those sorts of games, even though there are PC versions of most of my favorite ones. No, I have come to love my computer card game versions, such as Hearts.

I've previously posted my best games from my Hearts games on my last computer - I'm sure they were thrilling posts to this blog's readers. I probably won't do that again, but I'm going to post a couple of screen shots from this new version of Hearts. Sorry. This will most likely be a one-time deal.  Maybe not.  I might do an update of my win/loss record after a thousand games;  that will probably be in five years or so.

I really like this new version; I didn't think I would because it, like this computer, was different and I'm getting to the age where I don't really like new things, preferring the things I'm familiar with...broken in and comfortable, like a favorite pair of sneakers. It didn't take long to get comfortable with the new Hearts game and I'm of the mind that it's programmed to be more "fair". (With the last Hearts game it seemed as though I didn't just play the three computer opponents individually, but that they ganged up on me!)

What's really cool about this new version are the sound effects: a little "doom" sound (for lack of a better word) when the queen of spades is played and a breaking glass sound when Hearts are "broken". It also keeps a running tab of how many points you've taken during the trick and you also get a congratulatory message if you catch all the tricks. "You've shot the moon!"

The neatest thing is when you win a game and get all the little floating hearts which explode when they float upwards:

The only thing I wish I could change in it is my player name; it goes by what I named the computer when I first booted it up.  It did allow me to change my computer opponents to Huey*, Dewey and Louie - not from the Disney ducks, but the names of the robots in the old sci-fi flick Silent Running. I really liked that movie and so did my British friend Elle.  It makes me think of her when I play the game.  I also think of my good online friend Barb's dad when I play the game, even though I never met him, but she once told me he loved to play cards and esp. Hearts. 

* I need to change that to the proper spelling.  I always get that wrong when I spell it.

It's also cool that you can save a game and also that it keeps a running count of games played/games won.

I've already played more games than that shows, though, and have won half of the games played.

Yep, getting old. I used to get enthused about going out to the bars and getting drunk or making a road trip on the spur of the moment. Now? I'm happy to play Hearts and listen to online radio.

Monday Monday - The Mamas & The Papas

A Crock of Kroc

This was the Today in History entry from the widget in the right-hand column:

























I've been to McDonalds less than half a dozen times in my life.  A couple of times was when I was with my sister and her then-husband when we were in Amarillo. He loved the franchise and I never understood why.  OTOH, he thought macaroni grew on trees, so.... Another time was after work and a co-worker asked if I wanted to go eat breakfast and that he'd buy.  I jumped at the chance, but would have turned it down if I had known he wanted to go to McDonalds.  Another time was when I was going to go the the movies but knew I didn't have time to eat anything but fast food.  The McDonalds was just a few hundred yards from the theater so I got a burger there and wolfed it down in time to catch the flick. 

I also ate there a few months ago when I got a craving for french fries and a chocolate milk shake.  (I like to dip the fries into the shake - better than ketchup!)  They DO make good fries and shakes, but I prefer burgers from just about anywhere else. Pampa has a couple of locally owned hamburger joints that make MUCH better burgers than McD's.   I stopped at Sonic the other day and asked the girl who brought me my food if they were always that busy.  She mentioned that McDonalds hadn't finished their new building - I then remembered they had torn down the "old" one (probably ten years old or so) and was building another one.  It looks like the same size as the last one.  Hmmm....

It wasn't the quality of their food that kept me away from  McDonald's, though, but rather a political reason.    It was the early 70's and I was becoming politically aware.  Nixon was President and I was starting to work my first real, paying jobs.    When I first started working, the minimum wage was $1.90/hr. then it was raised to a whopping two bucks an hour.  Whoopie!  I worked for the county mowing the graveyard and courthouse lawn- we were allowed to put in 50 hours/week, but the county, being a govt. entity, was exempt from having to pay overtime.  That meant we could make a hundred bucks a week.   Even back then that wasn't a lot of money. (At least it didn't seem that much then, but it could probably buy as much as three times that amount now.  Gasoline was .28 cents/gallon and you could rent an apt. in my home town for fifty bucks/month)

I was in the school library during study hall and was reading the paper and read an article about Ray Kroc having Nixon on his yacht.  The article said it happened quite often and questioned their relationship.  It made me question it too and made me do some more research. 

This was long before the Internet, so I had to dig through all sorts of periodicals, but I eventually found that Nixon had vetoed several minimum wage increase bills sent to him by Congress.  I also found out that the largest employer of young people was McDonalds...young people who also comprised the vast  majority of minimum wage workers.   It didn't take a genius to figure out that there was more to the Kroc/Nixon connection than appeared on the surface. 

Since that time, however, I've come to conclusion that the min. wage isn't necessarily a good thing.  A free market should set wages, not Congress or unions or Presidents.   Even if there has to be a minimum wage, I think there should be a provision for training wages and an exemption for the youngest workers.  (the young me would be furious at the me I am now) The best thing of all would be for government to stay completely out of regulating prices or wages or subsidizing any industry.

A Helluva Lot Smarter

Are You Smarter Than an Atheist?

Me? According to the quiz I am. I've read posts by atheists who seemed to be smarter than me, but what always struck me about most atheists is how hateful they sound when accusing organized religion being full of hate.  I always found it amusing how self-righteous most atheists were in regards to their superiority over the righteous, how hypocritical they were when speaking of religious hypocrisy and their unwavering faith that religious faith is foolish.

From the quiz:

Atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons are among the highest-scoring groups in a 32-question survey of religious knowledge by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. On average, Americans got 16 of the 32 questions correct. Atheists and agnostics got an average of 20.9 correct answers. Jews (20.5) and Mormons (20.3). Protestants got 16 correct answers on average, while Catholics got 14.7 questions right. How will you do on the quiz?










I think I did fairly well ; here are the questions I missed:

When was the Mormon religion founded?

I didn't know, so I took a guess.   I did mull it over for a while and started to choose the correct answer, but didn't.  I'll admit I don't know much about the Mormon religion, but I suspect we'll all learn more about it if Romney gets the Republican nomination for President.

Which one of these preachers participated in the period of religious activity known as the First Great Awakening?

Totally clueless about this one.  Took a guess and was wrong.

Which of these religious groups traditionally teaches that salvation comes through faith alone?

I was annoyed that  I missed this one but what the hell? (pun intended)

Are You Smarter Than an Atheist?

Free Clocks for All !

Oh wow, a double-goody! Lots of hosted clock scripts for a blog or website and they're free!

One of my personal favs:

Many more at their clock gallery.

Visit CSalim.com

New Computer

The day started out as usual; checked email, reader, Facebook...the usual. I bumped the cord to my desk lamp and it went off, so I checked the plug and when I did that, I bumped the PC power cord and the computer just quit. I tried and tried to get it to come back on, but no joy. I figured I must have triggered a power surge and fried the power supply.

The thing was getting pretty old - over five years - so I bit the dust and went to WalMart and bought a new one, another HP. This one is great as far as hard drive capacity and memory, but it's Windows 7 and there's a steep learning curve for me on new things. I'm having problems getting used to it, but I'm sure I'll eventually get it sorted out.

 I had some problems getting it to boot at first, dunno why that was. I had bumped the power cord again and I was afraid I had fried something in this brand new one. I did opt for an extended service plan, though, but I was starting to get annoyed that I was going to have to pkg. everything up and take it back. Setting it up - connecting the cords, etc., didn't take long at all, but I spent a good two hours trying to get this thing to work. Since I had been saving files to an external drive, I didn't lose too much - just the stuff in the April "work" folder. Not a great loss, just a little annoying.

 I've also d/l a free a/v program, immediately deleting the Norton's that came w/ this machine. (just a 30 day trial, anyway) I've also d/l a few programs I always like to have: CrapCleaner, HijackThis, etc. and of course, I d/l Firefox.

It's the behavior of this new OS that I will have to suss out somehow. For example,I opened up Notepad to save some information (and I use Notepad several times a day, really handy program) but I don't know where it goes. The icon shows it's there, but I can't get it to come up. Oh well. I've also got to figure out how to get downloads to save to where I want them.

Another program I really don't like is the Windows Media Player. I liked my old one (some old version - I had upgraded once, then rolled it back) I had bare bones processes on my last PC - something like 20 processes at the max, but this one has 60 going. Since it has a lot more RAM, it doesn't seem to slow it down but I still want to cull down the running processes to just those that are necessary.

The one thing I need to really get used to is the new keyboard. This post has taken me twice as long to compose because the space bar doesn't work as well as the last one and I have to really make sure I'm hitting it for a new space. I tried signing in to my ATT/Yahoo homepage but kept having problems, even though I KNEW I was using the right password - then I saw I had spelled my email/sign-in name wrong "sbcglobtal.net" Oh well, again.

As Tears Go By - Marianne Faithfull

Perceptive Ink Blot Test

Sometimes these quizzes are off the mark and others - like this time - are so spot on it's scary.

---

You Are Balanced and Thoughtful

You view people with suspicion. There is a lot of interpersonal conflict in your life. You had more conflict with your father than your mother. Your relationship with him was difficult and possibly unhealthy. You deal with stress in an effective and competent matter. You are able to remain calm. You require a lot of calm in your life. When things get too hectic, you need to step back and reassess things.

The Inkblot Test

Blogthings: We Have a Quiz for Almost Everything

Hunger in Motion

As my regular readers know, I love recipes and collecting them.  When this recipe: bacon asparagus frittata hit my reader earlier, I thought it might be a good add to my collection.

Most recipes sites will at least have a photo of the finished product, but many will post a pictorial of step-by-step directions. Go to the site and check out the third graphic. I've never seen anything like that!

Taken Out of Context

Of course I know it's Easter, but I still had some confusion when I saw this post on Facebook from a recipe site I follow as well as subscribe to in my reader:

Not trying to be snarky or sacrilegious here, but I for a few seconds I couldn't understand why she'd refer to dough as "He"

Surprising Snake Spike

I had noticed an increase in traffic when I checked in Wednesday; most of the new visitors were coming from two different website forums that linked to the post Rattlesnakes in Palo Duro Canyon.

I kept an eye on the Feedjit Feed but unless I want to count each visitor, I had to wait until the Flag Counter totaled up the day in the early evening(around six p.m., i think)  I was semi-shocked to see that the blog traffic had tripled the average.

Usually when this pathetic excuse for a blog sees such a "large" increase in traffic, it's because Cast Away aired somewhere in the world.

I signed up for Google's AdSense a few years ago, but never followed through with the process.  I always figured the hassle to me and the extra loading time for my visitors wouldn't be worth the dollar a month - or less - I'd make from the few dozen visitors I get each day. 

While this blog doesn't get all that much traffic, the Flag Counter says that 169 different countries have visited. While most visitors are from the U.S., followed by the U.K. I did notice there had been one visitor from Iceland.  One visitor...and they, like most of the others, never came back.

Lindsay Lohan's Changing Face

25 Years in 60 Seconds

Skiing on Sour Milk

Reading this article earlier: 101 Uses For Soured Raw Milk, it reminded me of my once skiing on sour milk. No, I didn't ski ON sour milk but I skied BECAUSE of sour milk.

It was a long time ago, the late 70's. I was roughnecking for a man who lived in my home town of Miami. I lived in Pampa and had to drive to his house every day. There wasn't much of a drive after that, thank goodness; the rig was just outside of town, not even a five minute drive from my boss's house.

Still, I had to leave home fairly early in the morning in order to get there by shift change - 6:30 a.m. At the time, the speed limit was still 55mph and I gave myself 30 minutes to drive the 23 miles to Miami. One afternoon driving back home, however, my muffler fell off and I knew driving through town and on the major highway that I would most likely get a ticket, so the next morning I went the back way along Farm-to-Market Road 282, passing right by where I grew up and my folks still lived.

Thank goodness there was a small convenience store on the outskirts of town;  it was where I stopped every morning and bought my usual breakfast of a sausage/egg biscuit and a pint of chocolate milk. (Breakfast of champions - or that of lazy bachelors)

I was running behind a little later than I liked;  this drive added close to ten miles more to my usual route and I hadn't factored that in when I left that morning.  The road was deserted as it is most any time of the day, so I stepped on the gas when I got outside of town, my pickup sounding like a race car on steroids.  It was so loud I didn't even bother trying to listen to the radio as I usually did.

Trucking along at around 70 mph, I remembered my breakfast - I grabbed the sack and keeping one eye on the road and another trying to unwrap the biscuit sandwich, I started with my morning nourishment. I noticed a shimmer on a normally dry playa lake on the south side of the road, still off in the distance, probably a mile or so away. Must be some water in the lake, I thought, remembering that it had rained during the rig move and making the location a mess.

Here's a Google Earth screen shot of the playa lake I was talking about.  The "X"  will play a part in the story - give it a minute. (I'm traveling left-to-right on the road)
.

I took a bite of the biscuit, chewed a while because it was a little dry. It made me wonder if it was cooked a little too long or was left over from the previous day. I made a note to myself to complain about it the next morning. With one hand on the wheel, I used the other to pry open the container of milk   I took a swig, swallowed the liquid and what was left of the breakfast sandwich. I put the carton to my mouth again for another swallow and that's when I realized....

It was sour.  No, more than sour.  Sour would be delicious compared to the putrid fluid I had just taken in.  I started gagging and one memory will stay with me forever - the date on the carton, barely visible by the dashboard light, was two weeks ago.  (I'm about to barf thinking about it.)  The chocolate flavor had disguised any smell that might have tipped me off.

I started slowing down because I knew I was going to vomit and hoped I could come to a stop before I did.  Cleaning up the mess would make me puke again, I was sure. 

Slowing down probably saved my life, at least that's what I've always thought.  Still, I was going at least fifty miles per hour when I hit the water on the road.  The playa lake had overflowed across the road and there was probably six inches of water on the pavement.  The water immediately slowed me down from whatever speed I was going, but my truck started hydroplaning.  I was out of control in a second.  My vehicle did a 180 and I was suddenly going backwards. I don't know what sort of G-forces I encountered, but it nearly made me black out.   Then, just as soon as I noticed I was looking at the road I had just traveled, I did another 180 and was out of the water and onto dry pavement. 

I stopped, got out and emptied my stomach.  I'm sure the sour milk was the main cause of my being sick, but I think I also would have vomited from fear.  Ever been scared nearly to death? I have, quite a few times, especially from working on drilling rigs.  The taste it leaves in my mouth is like sucking on a penny - a copper and acid combination that must be the result of pure adrenaline rushing through my body.  I've never thrown up from it...or the scare...but I spit for an hour afterwards.

Here's another screen shot of the road and low spot.  The "X" is the place in the above graphic where I hit the water.

I learned a couple of things that morning:  One, to not speed on the way to work, even if it is on a deserted road.  I'd rather people say "That damn Mike is late." than "My, don't he look natural?"

The second thing I learned?  Well, it's a two-parter:  to always check expiration dates on food and to always....ALWAYS....smell milk before drinking.

Wanna know something funny? (or strange or stupid or whatever adjective you want to use, I wouldn't be offended.) Through that scary few seconds, when I was whipped around worse than an astronaut in a centrifuge, all through the time of trying to regain control of my vehicle, I didn't drop the milk. 

Grammy Trivia

Looking up above my computer desk, I noticed I was a day behind on tearing off the calendar sheet; I have a "Fact or Crap" calendar I got from one of my sisters for Christmas. She always sends me calendars like that for Christmas or my birthday - last year was a Jeopardy calendar.

Since I love trivia, I've liked them all, but this one is much easier, having a 50-50 chance of getting it right, fact or crap. (most facts I know could be considered crap) I tore off yesterday's sheet and saw the one for the day I missed asked this question: "What do these groups have in common?" It listed some well-known bands, some of them my favorites, some legendary. The answer on the back said they had never won a competitive Grammy.

I did a search to find out what was considered a competitive Grammy, but didn't find the answer in the first few search results. (I'm sure it means a Grammy that wasn't a lifetime achievement or contributions to the industry type- honorary, in other words) Instead, I found a quiz about the Grammys so I tested my Grammy knowledge.

How well do you know your Grammy history?

Here's my score - click graphic for larger view

To be fair, some of the answers were on my calendar sheet, so I didn't do nearly as well as it seems.  This was one of those quizzes, though, that I still enjoy even if I didn't do as well as I liked because I learned something with my wrong answers.

What that's good for...well, maybe one of these days I'll get on Jeopardy.

Check Your Firefox Plugins

pyknic

From our Word of the Day module:

pyknic \PIK-nik\

adjective:

1. Having a rounded build or body structure.

noun:

1. A person of the pyknic type.

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One might say it's no picnic trying to keep from being pyknic.

Reading Again

For the longest time, I hadn't read a book.  There were several reasons why - my eyesight isn't as good as it used to be and my eyes grow tired more quickly;  I've also not read books as much as I did before I first got a computer.  I still read, but it's mostly news articles and forum posts and comments. 

It's also been hard for me to find something to hold my interest.  I've always enjoyed good fiction, but I haven't checked many books out of the library that engaged me. Most of the time I start them, then simply cannot finish. I then forget about them and have to pay a late fee because I forget to take them back. I never minded paying for an overdue book if I enjoyed it, but I hate to pay a fine for a book I didn't read, much less one I didn't even like.

I was at the library the other day to pick up some tax forms and decided to peruse the new releases.  I saw the newest Stephen King novel 11/22/63 and reading the flyleaf, decided I wanted to give it a go. (WARNING:  Spoilers at the Wiki link)

I can barely put it down, it's so good.  The book is about an English teacher who is teaching a GED class and reads a horrifying essay by the school janitor, an account of his father murdering his entire family and nearly killing him as well back in 1958. The teacher is emotionally moved by the tale but then gets the largest shock of his life;  a friend who owns a diner shows him a time portal in the diner's pantry that leads to 1958.  The teacher is urged by the diner owner to go back in time and try to change history, namely to stop the assassination of JFK.  He decides to take on the task, but also thinks that the portal goes back to '58 because he is supposed to stop the massacre of the janitor's family.

I'm at the point of the book where he's been back in time for a few weeks.  The storyline is derivative of most time travel tales, namely the sci-fi question: If you go back in time, can the future be changed?  That question seems to be cleverly answered so far, but I'm anxious to see what will happen. I expect there will be several twists and turns along the way.

So far, the novel seems to be one of King's better efforts, especially of the last 10-15 yrs. (I haven't liked much of anything he's done over that time, but that's just a personal opinion) He does a great job of bringing the characters to life and adds in some bits of humor.  The account of a much simpler time in the late 50's is also appealing. If I have a gripe so far, it's that he interjects his own personal politics a bit too much, but it's not anything too annoying.

Think I'll get off of here, go kick back and read some more.  I haven't been this enthused about a book in years.

A Slice of Life

Quite a few years ago, I was roughnecking for one of my best friends. Besides me and the driller, the rest of the crew consisted of my friend's brother-in-law and a guy who I knew, but not very well. I knew his family, though, because his dad had worked for my grandfather in the oil field.   For the life of me, I can't remember the guy's name...but that's not important for this story.  I'm sure he would want to remain anonymous and I can't say as I'd blame him.

We worked nights - morning tour (pronounced "tower") and on the way home, the guy, like many of the guys I worked with, liked to drink beer.  Before you gag, remember that night shift workers have their days turned around and 7:00 a.m. is like 5:00 p.m. to everyone else.   I've never been much of a drinker and especially when I worked that shift.  Drinking upsets my sleep and it's hard enough getting rest during the day, what with the usual daytime noises.

The guy whose family I knew liked to drink any chance he got, though, and that morning when he cracked open his first beer I got the impression that he had started drinking even before the shift was over. (really stupid thing to do on a drilling rig - they're dangerous places to work even when you have all your senses about you)  By the time we dropped him off, he was sloshing drunk.  We watched him stagger up the sidewalk to his front door and as we drove off, made wisecracks about his wife being angry with him and hoping he wouldn't have a hangover that night at work.

The day passed, I got what rest I could trying to sleep during the day and when my boss picked me up, we headed straight on to work without picking up the guy.  I asked where he was and was told his wife had called and said he couldn't make it, that earlier he had suffered an accident at home and had been forced to go to the emergency room.

We guessed at what had happened - his wife had hit him with a frying pan when he came in drunk, he had slipped in the shower or maybe he had continued his drinking when he got home and was just too drunk to go to work and the ER story was just an excuse to keep from being fired.  Even though we were short-handed, we thankfully got through the shift without too much trouble.  Another day went by and it was time to go to work again. This time, however, the guy was ready to go to work and on the way to the rig, told us why he had missed the previous night.

"I was really drunk when I got home." he started his story with an obvious fact.  "My old lady woke up when I fell down in the living room and gave me hell for a while." (That was something else we had figured would happen, duh.) He went on: "I really needed to pee, so I went into the bathroom and started peein' like a Russian racehorse when I noticed a loose thread hanging from my fly.  I pulled on the thread but it wouldn't come loose.  There was a piece of broken mirror on the toilet lid (probably the result of a previous drunken episode, I thought) so I picked up the jagged glass and slashed at the thread."

Get the picture?  Do I need to spell it out for you?  I don't think I will.  When we got out to the rig and started changing clothes, he showed us his injury.  It was close to the top of "it" and had required 27 stitches to close. 

Made me cringe then, makes me cringe now.  There's a moral to the story, but you can supply your own, I'd wager.

I quit that job after a while, then a few months later I came back to work for my friend.  In that time, the guy had also quit and and had also come back to work on the rig, but on a different shift.  We passed by an ambulance on the way to work and nervously hoped it wasn't coming from our rig....but it was.  The injured party was the same guy!  He had to go up in the derrick and must have been semi-drunk when he did because he forgot to put on his safety belt and fell out.  He slowed his fall some by grabbing onto a cable but still hit hard enough to break several bones.  That was lucky - in a way - but even though he didn't hit as hard as he could have, he landed a-straddle the drawworks guard.  He managed to avoid crushing "anything important", but he was split from his rectum to nearly his belly button.  That makes me cringe even worse than thinking about his other injury.

That's not really funny, not unless you have a sadistic sense of humor.  Maybe I do have a sadistic sense of humor because it reminds me of an old joke:

Johnny's mother sent him to the store for a loaf of bread.  He was walking home, the loaf of bread under one arm and the hand of his free arm stuck deep in his pocket, when he bumped into the pastor of his church.

"Afternoon, Johnny!" said the preacher. "I see you have the staff of life in one hand;  what do you have in the other?"

"Oh," sheepishly replied Johnny. "That's a loaf of bread."

NASCAR Self-Driving Car

Well, they DO have a self-driving car, but I'm sure this is their annual April Fool's hoax.

Bringing self-driving cars to NASCAR | Official Google Blog

They started early with an 8-bit thing in Google Maps.

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Here cometh April again, and as far as I can see the world hath more fools in it than ever.
 - Charles Lamb

Big Change for ToTG

No, not an early April Fool's joke. Just a tiny exaggeration. Tiny is right.

A while back, I noticed Blogger had introduced the ability to add a favicon to blogs. I kept meaning to create one and upload it, but kept forgetting until last night. I tried several different ones, but finally settled on the shape of Texas in the ToTG logo.  I also didn't like the white square on the blue-ish grey background on my Firefox browser, but when I made the white  transparent, it made the entire thing almost invisible. 

A webmaster I'm not. (nor a graphics artist or a decent blogger, but....)

For some reason it doesn't change from the orange "B" Blogger one in my bookmarks menu.  (and I've deleted the old bookmark, cleared cache and cookies but still no-go)

Anyway, did you notice?  What do you think?

A Rare Medium Well Done

So says the PBS fundraisers.  I wouldn't disagree - although I really don't like tax money funding the channel - but they have dropped the ball, particularly at the local PBS station, KACV.

As many of you know, I enjoy collecting recipes and watching most Food Network programming. One Saturday a few months ago, I noticed a show on PBS called America's Test Kitchen, immediately followed by another program called Cook's Country from America's Test Kitchen. (Official website)

I immediately fell in love with both shows. They appealed to the food geek in me, ala Alton Brown and his Good Eats show, plus the recipes were not complicated and were usually improvements on classic, every day dishes. They also do blind taste tests on various ingredients as well as review useful kitchen appliances. The host, Christopher Kimball, is likeable and entertaining and doesn't take himself too seriously. I also enjoy the recipe adaptations by several of the female contributors.(They don't show cleavage like some of the female Food Network show hosts nor or they as attractive, but they're cute and seem more "real" than does Giada De Laurentiis. They're certainly not anywhere near as annoying as Rachael Ray. That said, Claire Robinson and Nigella Lawson and a couple other female FN show hosts could boil water every week and I'd watch.  Hey, I may appreciate good cooking, but if there's also a pretty face involved...that's a bonus, like finding two yolks in an egg)

I was a little annoyed last week when they showed only one of the Test Kitchen shows and I was hoping that wouldn't be permanent. The programming before the cooking shows consists of cartoons and sewing/quilting/crafting shows. That's fine, I'm glad - if I have to pay for it - that there are programs that appeal to everyone, but I didn't want anything to preempt my shows. After my new-found favorite shows are how-to and home improvement shows, another with a guy who makes crude, new things with crude, old tools followed by a boring car show or two and then Lawrence Welk reruns to round off the afternoon. Yuk.

No, I want my America's Test Kitchen shows, at least one of 'em!!!

Instead, they aired a rerun of Back to the Table with Chef Bud, a poorly done cooking show with an Amarillo area chef. Now, I watched his first two shows because they had been heavily promoted and I wanted to see if it was any good.

It wasn't. Judge for yourself.




It's not horrible...but it's not good, either. Part of the fault with my finding fault is that I'm used to the professional production of FN shows and the likeable hosts. Since we can't smell or taste the food they're cooking, personality plays a huge part in a cooking show's appeal. Maybe the show will get better with future episodes, and I'm sure Chef Bud is a good cook, but it lacks that certain "something", like not enough sage in Thanksgiving dressing or a rib-eye steak without salt. IOW, bland. The visuals aren't all that good, either.

I want my America's Test Kitchen shows back!

Happy Together - The Turtles

About That Time Again

I was looking at this blog's Flag Counter the other day and viewing the yearly graph, I was reminded that April Fool's Day is coming up.

For the last couple of years, I've linked to the Google blog and their annual April Fool's joke and it had a trackback and people saw the link and came here.

I'm sure they were disappointed.

This blog averages around 50 unique visitors every day, 80 on a "good" day.  Now and then the count tops 100-150, but that's rare.  They mostly arrive from search engines, looking for gay dwarfs, sister's feet or other things I'm sure they meant to find but didn't...at least not anything applicable to their original intent. 

There are quite a few hits from people searching for Duane Chapman (Dog the Bounty Hunter) or for a particular vehicle I just happened to photograph at a car show.  Some come for videos, but often YouTube has taken them down.  That's probably a visitor that will never come back here, but I can't help that.  I always wonder why they don't search YouTube, but on the other hand, sometimes the comments after the video might be what brings them in. My friends, family and regular readers are sometimes enthused by a certain video and Google or other search engines has their comments in the results.

Many come from different parts of the world when the movie Cast Away is shown, and I'd bet the other spikes in visits shown in the above graphic are from that.  ToTG is near the top in most types of searches for that movie.

My claim to fame. -sigh-

No matter the reason they arrive here, I appreciate the traffic...even though I don't have any paying ads. I don't validate my self-worth by the hits on my blog, but the interest does make it seem worthwhile.   I also appreciate my online friends, my family members and loyal readers who do stop by and laugh at an old fool just foolin' around all year long.

Sugar Daddy

Got an email in my spam folder just now; here's the graphic that was in it:

I'm hoping they know something I don't...that maybe later tonight I will win the lottery and I CAN be a sugar daddy.

Actually, I wouldn't want a gold digger, even if I could afford her and she was twice as pretty as the woman in the graphic.  No, I want a woman who loves me for my sense of humor, my gentle and kind nature and my good looks.

Aw, who am I kidding? Maybe I DO need to be wealthy.

Oh yeah, just because they spammed me, here's their email addy:

sugardaddy@luckblog.com

I may not be handsome or wealthy, but I am a vindictive cuss.

Choking on Artichokes

A great artichoke post hit my reader earlier:

One Ingredient, Many Ways: Artichokes

I'll have to admit that I was basically unfamiliar with artichokes until a few years ago. Oh, I knew what they were and loved a pasta salad w/ artichoke hearts sold at a local supermarket deli.

So, I never had much experience with them until I dated a woman who cooked me dinner one night - steaks, corn-on-the-cob, baked potatoes and for an appetizer, she prepared an artichoke.  I watched her as she trimmed the leaves, then boiled the thing in a few inches of water. (basically steaming it, she informed me)

She made a couple of dipping sauces;  one was just melted butter and another was made with mayo and some various herbs and a dash of spicy mustard. The artichoke was done, so she put it on a serving platter along w/ the sauces and told me to have at it while she finished the rest of the meal.

Gamely, I snapped off a leaf, dipped it in butter and popped it in my mouth.  I started chewing...and chewing and chewing and chewing.  I chewed until my jaw was aching, then decided to swallow.  It was like swallowing shredded tree bark. (not that I've ever done that, I just imagine it was like that)

I sat there wondering what it was people saw in this particular dish. My gosh, maybe a cow would like it, what with the ability to chew, swallow, then bring it back up to chew some more, just as they do a cud of grass.  I bet grass would be easier to digest than an artichoke leaf.  Thinking that perhaps I had just got a leaf that wasn't cooked through, I popped another leaf off and started chewing on it.  Same thing as before.  This time I didn't attempt to swallow, but got up with the excuse I needed a glass of water (and I did!) but went to the trash and spat out the leaf, making sure she didn't see me.  I went and sat back down, saying nothing.

My lady friend noticed I wasn't eating the artichoke and asked me if there was something wrong with it.  She came over, snapped off a leaf, dipped it in butter, scraped it on her teeth then discarded what was left on an empty plate.  She looked around the table and asked me where my "spent" leaves were.  I told her I hadn't done as she did, but had chewed and then swallowed the entire thing.

She laughed until she was crying.  Then, when she caught her breath, told me that you don't eat the entire thing, but was just supposed to scrape the waxy covering off the leaf, then throw the rest away.

It would've been nice if I had known that before eating the entire leaf.

Sometimes ignorance isn't bliss.  Sometimes it's painful to chew.

The Waiting Game

Thought I'd check my Mega Millions lottery ticket; I knew from past experience to not even bother for a few minutes after the drawing and it's a longer wait when the jackpot is huge as it is now. The official Texas Lottery site has the results for all the Texas games as well as Powerball and Mega Millions. I waited for thirty minutes, then clicked on the link and got this error message:

A little unusual, but not totally unexpected. I then went to the official Mega Millions site and saw this:













The Texas Lottery site was probably just overwhelmed with traffic.  I bet I could have kept refreshing and eventually got the site to load.  I imagine the Mega Millions site servers have crashed.

Not sure why I'm even bothering about it; I'd bet - if I had it - 363 million I didn't win. The odds of me winning that bet are much better than the odds I won the lottery. (the same, only in reverse)

Oh well, I'll just go on to bed ,check in the morning.  I might be a multi-millionaire when I wake up.

Yeah, right.

---

UPDATE: According to an unofficial lottery results website, no one won the lottery. They put the new jackpot at 476 million with a cash value of $341.4 million. They also state it will be the largest prize "the world has ever seen."

I plan on buying a ticket early.  I remember a drawing for a huge jackpot a few years ago where there was so much activity, the Texas Lottery machines couldn't communicate w/ the main computer in Austin..

Tuesday Afternoon - Moody Blues

Some Might Say

I don't have a brain.

You Are 35% Left Brained, 65% Right Brained

The left side of your brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning. Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others. If you're left brained, you are likely good at math and logic. Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet. The right side of your brain is all about creativity and flexibility. Daring and intuitive, right brained people see the world in their unique way. If you're right brained, you likely have a talent for creative writing and art. Your right brain prefers day dreaming, philosophy, and sports.

Are You Right or Left Brained?

Blogthings: Learn Something Surprising About Yourself

Mega Wages

The Mega Millions lotto had no winner this last drawing, so it's rolled over again, making the jackpot of $365 million one of the largest ever.

The amount is staggering, isn't it? Over a third of a billion dollars.  It would be nice (an understatement) to win it, but even nicer (read:greedy) to be the sole winner.

The $365 million is for an annuity which would be paid out over 26 years.  When you purchase a ticket, you have the option of the annuity or taking a lump sum, which for this drawing would be $255.1 million. After federal taxes, that figure would be $165.815 million. (No state tax in Texas!) I've always thought I would opt for this method of payout, considering what my age would be after 26 years.  I have to face the fact that I most likely wouldn't live to see the last yearly payments. (or wouldn't remember my name or that I had ever won the lottery) That's not the only depressing fact to take into consideration - the interest on certificates of deposits is pathetically low.  They vary all the time and from bank-to-bank, but some yearly CDs pay less than 1% a year and 5-yr CDs anywhere from 1.7- 2%. 

Let's say you blew through 10 million right off the bat and allotted another million a year to spend until your jumbo 5-yr CDs matured. (of course, you could make a dab of interest on unspent money, but let's disregard that for the sake of simplicity.) $150 million @ 2% would, with simple interest (not figuring compound rates) get you $3 million per year. (15 million+ over the five yr. period)  Of course, Uncle Sam would want his 35%*, so the yearly net would be $1.95 million. I think most people could live on that.(You could also make some interest on the earned interest if you reinvested it.)  You could then leave the huge sum of money - the 150 million-  to your family.  (Although in some cases, you *might* want to lie to them and tell them you're leaving most of it to charity.  Otherwise they might want the will to be read a little early, if you get my drift. It's happened.)

On the other hand, if you did opt for the annuity, the income is much better.  Before taxes, the yearly payout would be $13.692+ million a year with a net of $8.9 million.  That would give you a monthly take-home income of a little more than $741, 666, a weekly income of $171, 153 and change - which works out to $24,383.56 a day.

Or, you could look at it this way: $1015.98 an hour.  You could afford to pay someone minimum wage (Federal min. wage is $7.25) - along with some basic benefits - just to screen your calls from all the distant kinfolk and scam artists who would want some of your new-found riches.

That leaves you with a thousand bucks an hour for 26 years.  That's $1000 per hour, every hour of every day of every week of every month for 26 years.  Rain or shine, asleep or awake, it's going into your bank account.

Not bad wages, huh?

*I've read that 35% federal tax rate might soon go up to 39% if the current administration has its way.  It's not just the President and the Democrats in Congress - a growing percentage of the population is of the mind that the rich don't pay enough taxes.  Winning the lottery wouldn't just change your life, it might also change your political affiliation. -wink-

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Edit: I don't mean to insult anyone w/ the political reference. I expect you...or I...would keep our same core political beliefs as we had before winning the lottery, BUT I'd think...would hope...we would be more "liberal" in regards to charity and more "conservative" fiscally.

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UPDATE:  The announced jackpot is 363 million.  I guess the 365 number was the estimate.  Usually, though, when a jackpot is this large, the number goes up because the prize is tied into a percentage of tickets sold. So, my calculations are incorrect.  They were, anyway.  I don't know what caused me to make the mistakes, but I did.  (I used my computer calculator, but I guess you need to be semi-smart to use it.  That lets me out.) So sue me.  Wait until I win the lottery, though, because you damn sure wouldn't get anything now.

I read an article this morning which mentioned "lottery fever" - when people get excited by the huge jackpot and buy more tickets, often more than they can afford.  It also touted some "expert" who said a lottery player should always pick their own numbers, not allow the machine to choose them.  That doesn't make any sense, because one number is just as good as any other. (the winning number notwithstanding! -grin-) I always get a "quick pick" because my old set of numbers never did much good.  I also had a fear that if I ever did quit playing them or change to another, they would come up.  That could happen anyway, I suppose.

I also bought but one ticket.  Buying two tickets doesn't do much to increase your odds of winning, not by my thinking.  If the odds are one in ten million, then an extra ticket would make it two in ten million.  I suppose you've doubled your chances, but....

Quickie Wiki

The other day I was listening to an online radio sports talk show and they announced "This just in! Marion Barber retiring!"

Being a fan of the Cowboys and always enjoying watching Barber run the ball (his nickname was "Barbarian") when he played for Dallas, I did a quick search to see how well he had done after he had left the Cowboys. Quite a few results came up, most from football websites like NFL.com, ESPN, various fan sites and the official Cowboys site.

I also noticed news articles on Barber's announcement and most had "fifteen minutes ago" as the time the article was posted, which was about the same amount of time since I had heard the news on the online show. Also in the results was Barber's Wikipedia entry. I clicked on it and saw that it had already been updated with his retirement.

That wasn't surprising, though. It's been something I've been doing after hearing news of note - checking Wiki to see how fast it's updated. I've noticed that with other news stories, one recent one being the death of Whitney Houston. The Wiki entry for the last Super Bowl was changed to reflect the final score within moments of the game being over.

Now, you might think it's pretty sad or a sign of having too much time on my hands for me to check Wiki for updates when breaking news is announced. You would be correct, but what does it say about those who rush to the site to update the entry before anyone else?

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Update to add: Another example would be that of the NBC show Celebrity Apprentice. It's just now ending as I type this, but the results/who won the challenge/who was fired has already been posted. I realize there are different satellite feeds, one earlier on the east coast, so that accounts for the quick update, but it would be a spoiler for anyone who read the Wiki entry before the show airs in their time zone.

A disclaimer: I've never watched Celebrity Apprentice much before this season and I haven't seen all the shows this year.  I watched a few of the shows last year because Meat Loaf and Gary Busey were contestants and they had a huge fight during one competition.  (either one could be/should be the poster child for "Just Say No")  I don't care much for Donald Trump and, for the most part, don't care much about celebrities. The thing I like the most about the show is watching the celebrities stab each other in the back in order to be kept on the show for the next week.

Pinuninterested

I had been hearing good things about Pinterest, an online "pinboard" used to organize and share your interests. I have a couple of Facebook friends who use it and several of my favorite recipe sites have also touted the service.

So, I went to the site and requested an invite.  I wondered why they made people do that; I would think that the normal procedure of filling out a few bits of information would do. I signed up and got a message saying I would be notified shortly.

Again, I wondered why I had to wait.  I really don't know why, but my suspicion is that they want people to think it's "exclusive" and it is a privilege to be allowed to join.  Several days went by and I finally got an email notifying me that I had been accepted and to click on a link.

As you can see, I was taken to my Facebook account and, as with so many of these things, I had to allow Pinterest to access my data and to let it post on my account.

This app may post on your behalf, including pinboards you created, pinboards you followed and more.

I really hate those apps.  It not only accesses my personal data, but that of my Facebook friends.  I want to be the one to share information, not some invasive application.  It also said it was going to update me to the new Timeline.  I've been putting that off, even though all Facebook accounts will go to that sometime this next week.  (I don't mind change, but I do not like that new format.  What's wrong with how they're doing it now?)

So, here's what I did with the invite.