Friday, April 29, 2005
written last night
..but coma set in before posting! Common occurrence..
* * * * * *
Lord have mercy, if only Florida could stay like this all year! Nights around 50, days near 80, couldn't stay inside if my life depended on it! Nothing exciting happening other than doin' all the good stuff since shedding the miserable grant writing misery for a while. Talked to an old friend today who has done a LOT of it over the years and gave him a few chuckles. My writing 'expertise', what little I have, has been in writing technical articles and manuals which tend to be targeted at folk 'in the trade', not beaurocratic bullshit. My buddy made a few suggestions for the best way to achieve success with a proposal; if a point can be made in 10 words, use 50. Use as much jargon as possible.
I can't do that. Re-wrote a couple of paragraphs using his suggestions. Indeed, the same information was in the paragraphs-turned-pages. Made me want to go slap the shit out of a lawyer. Hate that stuff.
The good stuff for the last few days has been installing the solar shades on the atrium, weed-eating and repairing the roof greenhouse ('cane damage, still a ways to go on that), building and testing a new hydroponic system in the lower greenhouse (works fine, needs to be populated), potting up a couple of dozen Brown Turkey fig starters, washing and hanging out a few loads of clothes for the wolfie to eat, and admiring how awesomely beautiful the jungle is in the Spring! There's a minor problem or so with jungle life this time of the year. The Asian Tiger mosquito is resident these days (and nights). They don't do that annoying buzzing of the ears thing. They are large skeeters that come in slightly sub-mach and hit hard enough to bruise. If you slap one of those gals, be sure to have a claw hammer handy. You'll need it to extract her beak. ...can't forget the ticks. I don't much care for ticks. I have found a successful way to minimize the number of extra balls I wake up with in the morning. Ought to write it up. Fairly cheap. Somewhat labor intensive.
Speaking of bug control, yesterday I heard on a radio newscast that California farmers use 51 pounds of pesticide (annually I assume) per acre to grow tomatoes and Florida uses nearly four times as much. 'tis true that Florida is a world-class bug factory but those numbers gave me cause to visualize that usage. The bit of jungle I keep carved out as a token front yard is approximately an acre and just thinking about dumping the equivalent of four 50 pound sacks of hugely poisonous dawg feed (a reference weight that I'm VERY familiar with! ;o) on that tiny patch is scary. Allegedly, the use of the various pesticides is carefully controlled in the US, not to any noticeable extent in most other countries. After NAFTA decended on us, the grocery stores around here suddenly had a severe shortage of reasonably priced local veges and fruit, replaced to a huge extent by MORE expensive stuff from Mexico. Grown in untreated sewage. Sprayed with God-knows-what and in unknown amounts. Pretty stuff, not a blemish from an evil bug-bite to be seen.
I haven't bought a bite of that crap since. There's still a few local truck farmers. Yeah, they spray but they also eat what they grow and the ones I know don't mind a bug or ten. They also use composted dung and greenery plus various mineral amendments rather than a sewer outfall for fertilizer.
Do you see a possible soapbox in the above?!!
* * * * * *
..added: ..was just listening to the Tallahassee late news. They had a Kerryvoter complaining about the mosquito population in Suwannee county and wanting the county to aerial spray the whole area (688 sq. miles) so he wouldn't have to be fussed. Jackass. Wonder if the dingbat has any idea what it would cost to poison the entire county twice weekly and how ineffective the attempt would be? There is one certainty, dragonflies would be wiped out and since they have a larval stage that lasts typically 1-2 years rather than the mosquito's one week, the preditor/prey ratio becomes all cockydoodle. Lived in a place that got the twice-weekly spraying for a while, then it was cut off. Ever see a white front door totally black with skeeters or screens so solid with them they were opaque? Woops, about to go all soapbox again!
* * * * * *
Found this little pearl when looking for the square-mileage of Suwannee County:
I haven't seen Emmylou since she was the opening act for Willy Nelson at the Circle Star Theater in Belmont, California back in 1974! Yep, been a fan all these years, think I'll sell Rustbucket and buy a ticket!
* * * * * *
* * * * * *
Lord have mercy, if only Florida could stay like this all year! Nights around 50, days near 80, couldn't stay inside if my life depended on it! Nothing exciting happening other than doin' all the good stuff since shedding the miserable grant writing misery for a while. Talked to an old friend today who has done a LOT of it over the years and gave him a few chuckles. My writing 'expertise', what little I have, has been in writing technical articles and manuals which tend to be targeted at folk 'in the trade', not beaurocratic bullshit. My buddy made a few suggestions for the best way to achieve success with a proposal; if a point can be made in 10 words, use 50. Use as much jargon as possible.
I can't do that. Re-wrote a couple of paragraphs using his suggestions. Indeed, the same information was in the paragraphs-turned-pages. Made me want to go slap the shit out of a lawyer. Hate that stuff.
The good stuff for the last few days has been installing the solar shades on the atrium, weed-eating and repairing the roof greenhouse ('cane damage, still a ways to go on that), building and testing a new hydroponic system in the lower greenhouse (works fine, needs to be populated), potting up a couple of dozen Brown Turkey fig starters, washing and hanging out a few loads of clothes for the wolfie to eat, and admiring how awesomely beautiful the jungle is in the Spring! There's a minor problem or so with jungle life this time of the year. The Asian Tiger mosquito is resident these days (and nights). They don't do that annoying buzzing of the ears thing. They are large skeeters that come in slightly sub-mach and hit hard enough to bruise. If you slap one of those gals, be sure to have a claw hammer handy. You'll need it to extract her beak. ...can't forget the ticks. I don't much care for ticks. I have found a successful way to minimize the number of extra balls I wake up with in the morning. Ought to write it up. Fairly cheap. Somewhat labor intensive.
Speaking of bug control, yesterday I heard on a radio newscast that California farmers use 51 pounds of pesticide (annually I assume) per acre to grow tomatoes and Florida uses nearly four times as much. 'tis true that Florida is a world-class bug factory but those numbers gave me cause to visualize that usage. The bit of jungle I keep carved out as a token front yard is approximately an acre and just thinking about dumping the equivalent of four 50 pound sacks of hugely poisonous dawg feed (a reference weight that I'm VERY familiar with! ;o) on that tiny patch is scary. Allegedly, the use of the various pesticides is carefully controlled in the US, not to any noticeable extent in most other countries. After NAFTA decended on us, the grocery stores around here suddenly had a severe shortage of reasonably priced local veges and fruit, replaced to a huge extent by MORE expensive stuff from Mexico. Grown in untreated sewage. Sprayed with God-knows-what and in unknown amounts. Pretty stuff, not a blemish from an evil bug-bite to be seen.
I haven't bought a bite of that crap since. There's still a few local truck farmers. Yeah, they spray but they also eat what they grow and the ones I know don't mind a bug or ten. They also use composted dung and greenery plus various mineral amendments rather than a sewer outfall for fertilizer.
Do you see a possible soapbox in the above?!!
* * * * * *
..added: ..was just listening to the Tallahassee late news. They had a Kerryvoter complaining about the mosquito population in Suwannee county and wanting the county to aerial spray the whole area (688 sq. miles) so he wouldn't have to be fussed. Jackass. Wonder if the dingbat has any idea what it would cost to poison the entire county twice weekly and how ineffective the attempt would be? There is one certainty, dragonflies would be wiped out and since they have a larval stage that lasts typically 1-2 years rather than the mosquito's one week, the preditor/prey ratio becomes all cockydoodle. Lived in a place that got the twice-weekly spraying for a while, then it was cut off. Ever see a white front door totally black with skeeters or screens so solid with them they were opaque? Woops, about to go all soapbox again!
* * * * * *
Found this little pearl when looking for the square-mileage of Suwannee County:
The Florida Folk Festival at Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center in White Springs Florida invites you to the 53rd annual festival featuring Emmylou Harris to be held on Memorial Day weekend, May 27-29, 2005. Come and enjoy the festival and if you are looking for accommodations near by; Live Oak is only a few miles west of White Springs!
I haven't seen Emmylou since she was the opening act for Willy Nelson at the Circle Star Theater in Belmont, California back in 1974! Yep, been a fan all these years, think I'll sell Rustbucket and buy a ticket!
* * * * * *
Monday, April 25, 2005
monday, fuzzy monday
Lovely drizzly evening. 34 degrees this morning, sunny and a really class 1 afternoon to do good greenhouse things! I had a couple of posts mostly finished a few daze ago, just needed a ribbon or two to tie them up. Had to break from them to go do stuff. My, how they age and become all wrinkly! The teensy-weensy political 'stuff', how banal (delete the 'b') can those waste of skin creatures with the lawyer degrees get? ***sigh!*** Have you read about Lynne Finney's 22-23 year-old allegations about Bolton? James Taranto's WSJ column today (the link isn't archival) is a good read. If you get this after the 25th, just go view the archives.
Saturday morning I woke up with the tube still on. No idea what was worth leaving ABC drizzling electrons on the 30 year old 12" b&w phosphors, probably due to earlier weather alerts (tornado warnings). There was a children's news program on. Interesting in a sick sort of way. Turned it off after one kid did a PSA, "read the New York Times everyday and you'll know everything!" Yeah. Right. Yee gods.. ...as if the pitiful government skools were not bad enough.
* * * * * *
There's been much fun down here in the swamp last few days. Impromptu keyboard concert by a good musician, impossible to photograph little wolf wars, finally deciding to hang up a project that was killing me. Needs serious backing. Bagged & tagged. The intensity that I've put into it for so long has left me feeling a bit lost in space. Takes a while to finish a really-not-desired re-entry. Critters have to eat, bills have to be paid, as much as I'd like to continue that and a related project, there is really no possibility there will be so much as a kibble come out of it in my lifetime. Shoulda started it when I was 20, not 45. Way too late as a broke 55.
* * * * * *
At the end of this page is a link to a rather large video file. WMV & Quicktime, about 25 MB and worthy if you like this type of stuff. It downloads (did here) at dialup speed, no problem for me. I just go do other stuff! This would be magnificent expanded in an iMAX theater.
Hubble Space Telescope Celebrates 15th Anniversary
* * * * * *
This is fun. 1.6 MB file, 20 second stop-motion taken on 18 April.
Martian dust devil
* * * * * *
I'm truly fond of black humor. Rand Simberg had a link up this morning that lead to another link which wound up at the Big Dead Place. ALL the links on that page are worthy. Every word is true. Be awful careful though, I got caught by surprise and a fair amount of the morning coffee cleaned my sinuses! The link with the MMPI test, well, if you've been there, you'll probably be OK! ;o) Enjoy! I sure did!
* * * * * *
Saturday morning I woke up with the tube still on. No idea what was worth leaving ABC drizzling electrons on the 30 year old 12" b&w phosphors, probably due to earlier weather alerts (tornado warnings). There was a children's news program on. Interesting in a sick sort of way. Turned it off after one kid did a PSA, "read the New York Times everyday and you'll know everything!" Yeah. Right. Yee gods.. ...as if the pitiful government skools were not bad enough.
* * * * * *
There's been much fun down here in the swamp last few days. Impromptu keyboard concert by a good musician, impossible to photograph little wolf wars, finally deciding to hang up a project that was killing me. Needs serious backing. Bagged & tagged. The intensity that I've put into it for so long has left me feeling a bit lost in space. Takes a while to finish a really-not-desired re-entry. Critters have to eat, bills have to be paid, as much as I'd like to continue that and a related project, there is really no possibility there will be so much as a kibble come out of it in my lifetime. Shoulda started it when I was 20, not 45. Way too late as a broke 55.
* * * * * *
At the end of this page is a link to a rather large video file. WMV & Quicktime, about 25 MB and worthy if you like this type of stuff. It downloads (did here) at dialup speed, no problem for me. I just go do other stuff! This would be magnificent expanded in an iMAX theater.
Hubble Space Telescope Celebrates 15th Anniversary
* * * * * *
This is fun. 1.6 MB file, 20 second stop-motion taken on 18 April.
Martian dust devil
* * * * * *
I'm truly fond of black humor. Rand Simberg had a link up this morning that lead to another link which wound up at the Big Dead Place. ALL the links on that page are worthy. Every word is true. Be awful careful though, I got caught by surprise and a fair amount of the morning coffee cleaned my sinuses! The link with the MMPI test, well, if you've been there, you'll probably be OK! ;o) Enjoy! I sure did!
* * * * * *
Thursday, April 21, 2005
did we actually PAY for this?
Apparently, according to an op-ed in the WSJ, we paid $2,500,000 for this load of "amusement". Go install your specs and take a look. Moo. I'm about 130 pounds, 5' 5", aged male. If I followed THAT diet I'd rapidly become 90 pounds with constant dribbling $hits and a really bad attitude!
Feed me Seymore!
I don't graze. Critters do that for me. Barley is nice in meat soup but better malted and brewed. NOT as three-quarters of my diet. THAT much fruit (recommended) would give Godzilla the squirts. 5.5 ounces of beans and meat? Yeah. 5 beans and a fingertip.
Put in different specs than yours. I varied it from a hyperactive 15 year old female to a 70 year oldfart. Anorexia rules. ALL of the examples included 3 cups of milk a day. Moo. Graze and suck on a cow, eat waaay much fruit. Enjoy the dribblies whilst you become an Olsen twin!
* * * * * *
Nina is a hopeless Elvis nutcase. She has left me her mementos for safekeeping knowing perfectly well they will be perfectly tended. Personally I thought the old boy was rather overblown.
Heartbreak Hotel. #1, April 21, 1956
I started public skool officially the following September. Baaad memories of Day One. Small white boy got hammered. Better memories (MUCH better) followed. Elvis wasn't on my radar screen back then! (It's OK if you get the next one Nina. I rode out the AARP and the Senior bank account without much difficulty. You get 3 from when Wally carded me for the 6-pack! ;o)
* * * * * *
Mor'n likely you probably watch a bit of the MSM news. I don't, but catch a bit on the radio. The lefties seem to be trying to make John Paul II a Nazi and condemning Benedict XVI, aka, Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger as a "Hitler youth". Where do these bedbugs come from? Have they read those very honorable mens' histories? I was raised as a German Lutheran, probably as far from the Holy See as one can get and be Christian! Yep, got a hammer, nails, and a patch of paper to affix to the door! ;o) Both of those men represent the very best of the Catholic Church.
That is our freedom of religion.
I DID get a bit of a kick out of John Paul II relating the below article:
New pope intervened against Kerry in US 2004 election campaign
Of course Mr. Kerry (who served in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos) didn't really request a annulment from his wife of 18 years, mother of his daughters, just so he could marry a richer broad that was also Catholic. ...gotta keep that JFK "stuff" from Mass goin'... Since Ms. T has kinda dumped him, meebe he should mate with Hanoi Jane. A match made just for the moonbats!
* * * * * *
Feed me Seymore!
I don't graze. Critters do that for me. Barley is nice in meat soup but better malted and brewed. NOT as three-quarters of my diet. THAT much fruit (recommended) would give Godzilla the squirts. 5.5 ounces of beans and meat? Yeah. 5 beans and a fingertip.
Put in different specs than yours. I varied it from a hyperactive 15 year old female to a 70 year oldfart. Anorexia rules. ALL of the examples included 3 cups of milk a day. Moo. Graze and suck on a cow, eat waaay much fruit. Enjoy the dribblies whilst you become an Olsen twin!
* * * * * *
Nina is a hopeless Elvis nutcase. She has left me her mementos for safekeeping knowing perfectly well they will be perfectly tended. Personally I thought the old boy was rather overblown.
Heartbreak Hotel. #1, April 21, 1956
I started public skool officially the following September. Baaad memories of Day One. Small white boy got hammered. Better memories (MUCH better) followed. Elvis wasn't on my radar screen back then! (It's OK if you get the next one Nina. I rode out the AARP and the Senior bank account without much difficulty. You get 3 from when Wally carded me for the 6-pack! ;o)
* * * * * *
Mor'n likely you probably watch a bit of the MSM news. I don't, but catch a bit on the radio. The lefties seem to be trying to make John Paul II a Nazi and condemning Benedict XVI, aka, Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger as a "Hitler youth". Where do these bedbugs come from? Have they read those very honorable mens' histories? I was raised as a German Lutheran, probably as far from the Holy See as one can get and be Christian! Yep, got a hammer, nails, and a patch of paper to affix to the door! ;o) Both of those men represent the very best of the Catholic Church.
That is our freedom of religion.
I DID get a bit of a kick out of John Paul II relating the below article:
New pope intervened against Kerry in US 2004 election campaign
German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the
Vatican theologian who was elected Pope Benedict XVI, intervened in the 2004 US election campaign ordering bishops to deny communion to abortion rights supporters including presidential candidate
John Kerry.
In a June 2004 letter to US bishops enunciating principles of worthiness for communion recipients, Ratzinger specified that strong and open supporters of abortion should be denied the Catholic sacrament, for being guilty of a "grave sin."
He specifically mentioned "the case of a Catholic politician consistently campaigning and voting for permissive abortion and euthanasia laws," a reference widely understood to mean Democratic candidate Kerry, a Catholic who has defended abortion rights.
Of course Mr. Kerry (who served in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos) didn't really request a annulment from his wife of 18 years, mother of his daughters, just so he could marry a richer broad that was also Catholic. ...gotta keep that JFK "stuff" from Mass goin'... Since Ms. T has kinda dumped him, meebe he should mate with Hanoi Jane. A match made just for the moonbats!
* * * * * *
Friday, April 15, 2005
ear-scritchin' day
What a wonderful day! Kinda nippish at dawn for the middle of April down here at 37 degrees but beautifully sunny. Got me all worked up enough to mow parts of the yard, lane, and roof. Tomorrow is supposed to be identical so the rest of the job will get finished and the solar shades will get installed on the atrium. Got company expected, good friends of my new neighbors, should be a pretty fine day. Saturday is "housecleaning day" (yeah, right), never taken too seriously. 3,400 square feet, old swamp packrat engineer critter with a hatful of dawgs, "housecleaning" has a rather loose definition!
Parts of me came loose a couple of days ago so I won't put getting the roof-mounted greenhouse back in service just yet. It is to be converted to hydroponic mostly operation using flow & ebb now that I've found a way to do it rather cheaply. There are some excellent plans available on the net and I'll link them when the project becomes active again. I expanded on the best and made it a LOT cheaper to build. Presently I'll just have to be content to finish mowing the damn roof and getting the shades up before Florida does what Summertime Florida does best (melting yer ass).
This was kinda fun; Wednesday evening I went over to Jimmy & Kate's to pick up Abby. She tends to wander through the woods to spend the day raisin' Cain with her sister (imprint from their first week after rescue from the dumpster) and left with Kate going to give BeeBee a bath. I brought Abby home and decided to do the same with her.
At this point, 5 pages of my snail-mail should be inserted. Wolfies are water-babies. Good Lord do they love water! Gave her a scrub with some 30 year old dawg shampoo supposed to be good to rid canids of ticks with the shower on. It got really wet and happy! She dropped a bag of ticks but not all. Not there yet.
...to move on, Thursday was just a usual day, working my way up a long-term project that possibly has an end-point, being "helped" by my loyal assistants. The day ended nicely. This morning got a bit flakey when a large stray damn-near mangled Abby. I was less than pleased. The stray has an owner. The stray is destroying things down here. The stray will not be "stray" much longer. Tend him or I'll just have to have the proper county employees tend him. The "owner" is certifiable. Abby went to spend the day with her sister. No, I wouldn't do anything to the pooch even this was 50 years ago. He's a good critter, just has a very irresponsible owner. Certified.
Something good came out of it as I wanted to go pick up Abby and visit anyway. Abby and BeeBee are gonna be our communal wolfies and all of us are content with that. They are critter folk and I'm the moss on the tree! Moss that types occasionally. ..sometimes moss that will eat livers. Got over that (mostly) about a quarter of a century ago, found it easier to outlive assholes.
ANYWAY, had a good visit with a conversation the three of us started 6 months ago when I first met them. It was 27 years ago when I was involved with what that was about, back when they were 14 and 19 years old! Oh, the translation difficulties! My self-imposed years of hermitdom have NOT improved my verbal communication skills. It's getting better. Spooked myself a couple of years ago when I'd gone into town for supplies, the clerk at the first store spoke to me and I couldn't form words. It had been several months since I'd spoken, normally I had gone in a bit more often. 2 hours a month outside the swamp for a bunch of years. Nodding works mostly. I tipped the tub 7 years ago and there was no baby in the bathwater. 28 dried on the dirt. Got to keep 7. 4 of the 7 have died and the 3 left are finestkind.
I oughta write about the 28. It's amusing after all the time and truly explains the liberal mindset. Lots of nice, quiet years to consider each of them. All welfare babies. Everything is theirs by rights. Oh Lord, if only Nina had made me aware of their motives back then! But then, did she even know? Would I have been wise enough to understand before I got bagged? Probably not.
My one major fault is (was) trust. Mightily low on it these days. Ass got bit one time too many.
* * * * * *
Time for a news clip that I found amusing. This one was so silly it's hardly worth linking.
Mercury Scare Forces School Dismissal
Not worth a >blockquote<. Wonder if those Wonderbread fer brains consider the amount of mercury in the millions of florescent tubes lighting the windowless government skools are as fearful! There is a real wonder of a gummit skool just down the pike. Has maybe 1,100 students, no windows, cost $40,000,000 (no shit), has a graduation rate of under 56% (last web posting in 2003, logged, now missing). Probably mercury poisoning from all the broken bulbs!
Do skool administrators and the "ordained ones" (i.e., legislators) have opposable thumbs?
* * * * * *
Actually that most useless of newspapers had a reasonably accurate article in it today. It's read-worthy:
Iraqis Find Graves Thought to Hold Hussein's Victims
Old news, new news, odd stuff for the NYT. Was this on page 22E?
* * * * * *
In August of 2003, I had a major "problem". Not fun at all. Classic on every count. Took over 2 months to regain partial ability to breathe decently. Had something similar 7 years earlier that wasn't fun at all either. That one ended my making of good Southern milk gravy. Having carried one of those funny security clearances for ages, the one major thing one does is NOT to participate in the no-no weed. I've pretty-much been weed-free for the 28 years since my first born son was conceived . Had a puff with a preacher friend 6 years ago, nice stuff! My wonderfully spent youth in the Santa Clara valley between the ages of 20 and 28, well, tested a lot of homegrown! Weed makes me goofy, nice stuff to consume for smiles and lovin'. Bit of music and friends (and the contents of a 7-11!) but a disaster for coherent thinking.
THIS I found unusual. Especially from the Telegraph. Don't know if you will have to register for the article but if you do, I did years ago and I've not been spammed once from them. I did it with a throwaway as I always did before bugmenot.com. Little warning: don't use your primary email addy with the NY Times. Endless spam. I did.
Cannabis may stop heart disease
* * * * * *
"...though liberals do a great deal of talking about hearing other points of view, it sometimes shocks them to learn that there are other points of view."
--William F. Buckley, National Review, Jan 11, 1956
* * * * * *
* * * * * *
Parts of me came loose a couple of days ago so I won't put getting the roof-mounted greenhouse back in service just yet. It is to be converted to hydroponic mostly operation using flow & ebb now that I've found a way to do it rather cheaply. There are some excellent plans available on the net and I'll link them when the project becomes active again. I expanded on the best and made it a LOT cheaper to build. Presently I'll just have to be content to finish mowing the damn roof and getting the shades up before Florida does what Summertime Florida does best (melting yer ass).
This was kinda fun; Wednesday evening I went over to Jimmy & Kate's to pick up Abby. She tends to wander through the woods to spend the day raisin' Cain with her sister (imprint from their first week after rescue from the dumpster) and left with Kate going to give BeeBee a bath. I brought Abby home and decided to do the same with her.
At this point, 5 pages of my snail-mail should be inserted. Wolfies are water-babies. Good Lord do they love water! Gave her a scrub with some 30 year old dawg shampoo supposed to be good to rid canids of ticks with the shower on. It got really wet and happy! She dropped a bag of ticks but not all. Not there yet.
...to move on, Thursday was just a usual day, working my way up a long-term project that possibly has an end-point, being "helped" by my loyal assistants. The day ended nicely. This morning got a bit flakey when a large stray damn-near mangled Abby. I was less than pleased. The stray has an owner. The stray is destroying things down here. The stray will not be "stray" much longer. Tend him or I'll just have to have the proper county employees tend him. The "owner" is certifiable. Abby went to spend the day with her sister. No, I wouldn't do anything to the pooch even this was 50 years ago. He's a good critter, just has a very irresponsible owner. Certified.
Something good came out of it as I wanted to go pick up Abby and visit anyway. Abby and BeeBee are gonna be our communal wolfies and all of us are content with that. They are critter folk and I'm the moss on the tree! Moss that types occasionally. ..sometimes moss that will eat livers. Got over that (mostly) about a quarter of a century ago, found it easier to outlive assholes.
ANYWAY, had a good visit with a conversation the three of us started 6 months ago when I first met them. It was 27 years ago when I was involved with what that was about, back when they were 14 and 19 years old! Oh, the translation difficulties! My self-imposed years of hermitdom have NOT improved my verbal communication skills. It's getting better. Spooked myself a couple of years ago when I'd gone into town for supplies, the clerk at the first store spoke to me and I couldn't form words. It had been several months since I'd spoken, normally I had gone in a bit more often. 2 hours a month outside the swamp for a bunch of years. Nodding works mostly. I tipped the tub 7 years ago and there was no baby in the bathwater. 28 dried on the dirt. Got to keep 7. 4 of the 7 have died and the 3 left are finestkind.
I oughta write about the 28. It's amusing after all the time and truly explains the liberal mindset. Lots of nice, quiet years to consider each of them. All welfare babies. Everything is theirs by rights. Oh Lord, if only Nina had made me aware of their motives back then! But then, did she even know? Would I have been wise enough to understand before I got bagged? Probably not.
My one major fault is (was) trust. Mightily low on it these days. Ass got bit one time too many.
* * * * * *
Time for a news clip that I found amusing. This one was so silly it's hardly worth linking.
Mercury Scare Forces School Dismissal
Not worth a >blockquote<. Wonder if those Wonderbread fer brains consider the amount of mercury in the millions of florescent tubes lighting the windowless government skools are as fearful! There is a real wonder of a gummit skool just down the pike. Has maybe 1,100 students, no windows, cost $40,000,000 (no shit), has a graduation rate of under 56% (last web posting in 2003, logged, now missing). Probably mercury poisoning from all the broken bulbs!
Do skool administrators and the "ordained ones" (i.e., legislators) have opposable thumbs?
* * * * * *
Actually that most useless of newspapers had a reasonably accurate article in it today. It's read-worthy:
Iraqis Find Graves Thought to Hold Hussein's Victims
Old news, new news, odd stuff for the NYT. Was this on page 22E?
* * * * * *
In August of 2003, I had a major "problem". Not fun at all. Classic on every count. Took over 2 months to regain partial ability to breathe decently. Had something similar 7 years earlier that wasn't fun at all either. That one ended my making of good Southern milk gravy. Having carried one of those funny security clearances for ages, the one major thing one does is NOT to participate in the no-no weed. I've pretty-much been weed-free for the 28 years since my first born son was conceived . Had a puff with a preacher friend 6 years ago, nice stuff! My wonderfully spent youth in the Santa Clara valley between the ages of 20 and 28, well, tested a lot of homegrown! Weed makes me goofy, nice stuff to consume for smiles and lovin'. Bit of music and friends (and the contents of a 7-11!) but a disaster for coherent thinking.
THIS I found unusual. Especially from the Telegraph. Don't know if you will have to register for the article but if you do, I did years ago and I've not been spammed once from them. I did it with a throwaway as I always did before bugmenot.com. Little warning: don't use your primary email addy with the NY Times. Endless spam. I did.
Cannabis may stop heart disease
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
(Filed: 07/04/2005)
The active ingredient of cannabis can prevent blood vessels from becoming blocked by atherosclerosis, the inflammation that is the primary cause of heart disease and stroke.
The disease is halted when mice are given low doses of the substance, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, THC, according to a study published today in the journal Nature by Prof François Mach and colleagues at the Geneva University Hospital.
Atherosclerosis occurs when the build-up of immune cells in blood vessels causes narrowing of the arteries. THC, seems to prevents the recruitment of immune cells called leukocytes by binding to proteins called CB2 receptors on the surface of cells in the vessels.
Because atherosclerosis is rare in younger people who tend to smoke cannabis, there is no evidence of this protective effect from earlier epidemiological studies of the health effects, said Prof Mach. He added that his research will spur drug companies to look for compounds which can bind to CB2 receptors like THC but without CB1 activity and thus the psychotropic effects.
Prof Michael Roth, from the University of California, urged caution in the same issue of Nature. "The findings are striking, but they should not be taken to mean that smoking marijuana is beneficial to the heart. Also, no studies have been performed in humans to evaluate the effects of THC.
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"...though liberals do a great deal of talking about hearing other points of view, it sometimes shocks them to learn that there are other points of view."
--William F. Buckley, National Review, Jan 11, 1956
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Thursday, April 14, 2005
Don't forget, tomorrow is Buy a Gun Day!
Annoy a liberal!
...speaking of April 15th, Rachel Lucas has an outstanding rant today. Brought back some chuckles from the past when I used to make a fair amount of money. Being self-employed, I always owed big bucks on Buy a Gun Day, therefore the vast amount of paperwork was never submitted until the 15th. I'd run everyone off (next county was a safe distance), then sit down with the calculator, a huge stack of folders, and go to it. Well, that was after setting up a bunch of cans out in the woods and loading the rifle. When steam would start rising, the rifle emerged from the window and a few cans caught hell!
Annoy a liberal!
...speaking of April 15th, Rachel Lucas has an outstanding rant today. Brought back some chuckles from the past when I used to make a fair amount of money. Being self-employed, I always owed big bucks on Buy a Gun Day, therefore the vast amount of paperwork was never submitted until the 15th. I'd run everyone off (next county was a safe distance), then sit down with the calculator, a huge stack of folders, and go to it. Well, that was after setting up a bunch of cans out in the woods and loading the rifle. When steam would start rising, the rifle emerged from the window and a few cans caught hell!
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
AWOL (again)
Almost half a month. Been busier than a seven-peckered billy goat in a field full of hot nannies. Unfortunately not nearly as rewarding. Got a 15+ inch soaking with near hurricane winds, too many "got to finish" projects (whittled them down pretty good), and have spent my normal blog-writing time writing snail-mail letters. Most of the stuff would have gone here but it was written to one person and doesn't translate directly. Been having fun down here and have a few photos to share of Springtime in a Southern jungle. Probably won't be able to take the time to edit and upload until Sunday night. The dance card is full and then some until then! I wish I could swap the Friday jobs for the Saturday busyhands. Depends on how far I get tomorrow! One more pass down to the shop tonight and it'll be time for dropping into the coma mode.
Being AWOL doesn't keep the blognotes from accumulating. Some of mine drop off the cue by simply being a bit dated and the political ones, like all guano, merely tends to raise the disgust level another notch as it accumulates. Did you know when Reagan was prez, the IRS code was a 57 foot tall stack of books? Wonder what is is now?
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Absolutely inane crap from the UN always leaves me puzzled.
U.N. Approves Global Nuclear Treaty
Naughty naughty you silly little camel-humps! Kofi & crew just KNOW you're gonna be nice and play by the rules...
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Rather expected from Cornell:
Slime-mold Beetles Named for Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld
I wonder what those boys actually do for a living...
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Such a prestigious award! Hopefully I'll never deserve a Peabody!
"60 Minutes II: Abuse at Abu Ghraib,"
Ranks (in more ways than one) right up there with the Nick Anderson editorial cartooning Pulitzer. I did enjoy one of the Pulitzer photos:
"Fallujah - A U.S. Marine leads an Iraqi prisoner during fighting in the center of the city. (Photo by Anja Niedgringhaus, November 12, 2004.)"
Original 482 KB photo available here.
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There seems to be a few good items that need talkin' about but it's time for me to go move the material in the jigs and finish the gluing job. They'll have to keep. By the time that job is done, my face and the pillow will be one unit.
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Being AWOL doesn't keep the blognotes from accumulating. Some of mine drop off the cue by simply being a bit dated and the political ones, like all guano, merely tends to raise the disgust level another notch as it accumulates. Did you know when Reagan was prez, the IRS code was a 57 foot tall stack of books? Wonder what is is now?
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Absolutely inane crap from the UN always leaves me puzzled.
U.N. Approves Global Nuclear Treaty
Wed Apr 13, 5:31 PM ET
By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer
UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. General Assembly approved a global treaty Wednesday aimed at preventing nuclear terrorism by making it a crime for would-be terrorists to possess or threaten to use nuclear weapons or radioactive material.
A resolution adopted by the 191-member world body by consensus calls on all countries to sign and ratify the "International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism." The treaty will be opened for signatures on Sept. 14 and must be ratified by 22 countries to come into force.
"By its action today, the General Assembly has shown that it can, when it has the political will, play an important role in the global fight again terrorism," U.S. deputy ambassador Stuart Holliday told delegates after the vote. "The nuclear terrorism convention, when it enters into force, will strengthen the international legal framework to combat terrorism."
Russia's deputy U.N. ambassador Alexander Konuzin, whose country sponsored the resolution, hailed it's approval.
"It's the first time that an anti-terrorist convention has been developed on the basis of preventing — that is not after the fact but before the terrorist acts which are criminalized by this convention," he said.
The treaty makes it a crime for any person to possess radioactive material or a radioactive device with the intent to cause death or injury, or damage property or the environment. It would also be a crime to damage a nuclear facility. (snip)
Naughty naughty you silly little camel-humps! Kofi & crew just KNOW you're gonna be nice and play by the rules...
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Rather expected from Cornell:
Slime-mold Beetles Named for Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld
I wonder what those boys actually do for a living...
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Such a prestigious award! Hopefully I'll never deserve a Peabody!
"60 Minutes II: Abuse at Abu Ghraib,"
CBS News; Dan Rather report detailing abuses at the Iraqi prison, showing for the first time pictures of the prisoners. Produced by Mary Mapes.
Ranks (in more ways than one) right up there with the Nick Anderson editorial cartooning Pulitzer. I did enjoy one of the Pulitzer photos:
"Fallujah - A U.S. Marine leads an Iraqi prisoner during fighting in the center of the city. (Photo by Anja Niedgringhaus, November 12, 2004.)"
Original 482 KB photo available here.
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There seems to be a few good items that need talkin' about but it's time for me to go move the material in the jigs and finish the gluing job. They'll have to keep. By the time that job is done, my face and the pillow will be one unit.
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