Rain

We picked up Big Brother's Daughter Sunday night at the Orlando airport.

She's 20 and down from Utah to visit with us a while. We plan to grind her down to nothing with just how boring life can be in Florida. It seems that the rain will be an integral part of our nefarious plan.

Almost every day for several weeks now it has been raining. Florida rains are a bit different from what the rest of America gets.

The thunder storms mostly happen in the afternoons, when the winds shift between westerly to easterly. The warm ocean air hits the drier air of the morning and Poof!, instant rain showers.

Then, when it's all over, since most of the ground here is sandy, the water is gone pretty quick, so you can get back out and do stuff.

The land is so flat and low here, that anywhere buildings are put up, they are required to dig retention ponds next to them to provide adequate drainage until the water can be absorbed.

These retention ponds around businesses are often made into an attractive part of the landscape. The one for the set of buildings where I work is really full and pretty now. It has a nice sidewalk all the way around it and is a great place for walking...when it isn't raining. (And if we're really lucky, an alligator wanders into a pond at work, prompting our Security to interrupt their endless games of spades and send out a warning email to us all to neither approach or feed the alligators. Duh.)

The buildings where I work are mostly without any windows, and are pretty well sound proof, so when I can hear thunder inside at work, I know it's really bad outside.

So Niece and Number One Daughter went to the beach this morning and hopefully got their fill of the incredibly hot sun and humidity before this afternoon's storms started.

If you have ever been near here to Orlando's attractions, you've probably experienced the afternoon showers, only ours here on the coast tend to be more stormy than the one's in-state.

The worst part of the storms is that one of our dogs, Lilly, is scared of thunder, and when I hear it thunder during the day at work, I picture her cowering under something at home, trembling. She's really emotional and thunder truly scares her, while the other dogs look at her like, "What's wrong with you?"

Here's a pic of Lilly in Alpha Dog Mode, barking at us, demanding whatever food we were so foolish as to leave on the counter where she can smell it.

That's about all I have to say for today. In fact, I'll probably be entering this post in the "Most Boring Blog Post Ever" contest, if there is such a thing.

I think I have a real winner here.

Rain

http://jamspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/07/rain.html

Unless You Are Deaf, Dumb, and Blind...

...you are aware that The Barak Of Obama is in the middle east and Europe on a whirlwind campaign tour to people who cannot vote in our election this fall.

Michelle Malkin's site was showing photoshopped examples of what Obama's world tour t-shirts should look like.

Here's a couple of my favorites:


The three main news anchors from the three major networks are over there following The Barak Of Obama's every move with love and adoration. If you were suspicious that the main stream news workers in America where totally in the tank for Obama, you no longer have room for any doubt, do you?

On Glenn Beck's radio program this morning, they had a fake news story that Obama had taken a tumble at one of the events for him in Europe today. Apparently Katie Couric, Brian Williams, and Charlie Gibson were kissing the ground that Obama was about to walk on instead of the ground that he had walked on , and Obama tripped over them. The way they did it was perfect, as if the reporter was breathless in worry over Obama having "fallen."

Unless You Are Deaf, Dumb, and Blind...

http://jamspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/07/unless-you-are-deaf-dumb-and-blind.html

President Bush With Some Great Quotes

At a press conference on Monday, President Bush got a couple of really stupid questions from reporters but in turn gave great answers to them.

I saw film of these answers, and what does not show up in the transcripts I'll print below, was that President Bush visibly surprised that these dumb questions were asked in the first place.

Mark Smith from AP Radio: "Why have you not, sir, called on Americans to drive less and turn down the thermostat?"

President Bush: They're smart enough to figure out whether they're going to drive less or not. The consumer is plenty bright, Mark. The marketplace works. People can figure out whether they need to drive more or less. They can balance their own checkbooks. I think people ought to conserve and be wise about how they use gasoline and energy, absolutely. But my point to you, Mark, is that, you know, it's a little presumptuous on my part to dictate to consumers how they live their lives. The American people are plenty capable and plenty smart people and they'll make adjustments to their own pocketbooks. That's why I was so much in favor of letting them keep more of their own money, you know? It's a philosophical difference: Should the government spend their money or should they spend their own money? And I've got faith in the American people.

And then he was asked...

Unidentified Reporter: "Mr. President, do you think the oil companies are investing capital to find more reserves with the price at $140 a barrel?"

President Bush: Absolutely. Take an offshore exploration company. First of all costs a lot of money to buy the lease. They tie up capital. Secondly, it takes a lot of money to, you know, do the geophysics to determine what the structure may or may not look like. That ties up capital. Then they put the rig out there. Now, first of all, in a federal offshore lease if you're not exploring during a set period of time you lose your bonus. You lose the amount of money that you paid to get the lease in the first place. And once you explore, do your first exploratory, if you happen to find oil or gas you'll find yourself in a position where a lot of capital is tied up, and it becomes -- and your interests, your economic interests will continue to explore so as to reduce the capital costs of the project on a per barrel basis. So I think they're exploring.

President Bush having to hand out Capitalism 101 lessons to the journalism graduates.

Did you notice in that first question that the reporter assumed that Americans are so stupid that they need the President to order them to do sensible things?

President Bush With Some Great Quotes

http://jamspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/07/president-bush-with-some-great-quotes.html

Signs of the Apocalypse

I'm 45. I have grown up in the rock 'n roll era.

So, I can't help it, I love rock 'n roll music.

The harder, louder, and more screaming electric guitars, the better I like it.

But here's where it starts to get weird, as a Christian, I do NOT like to hear most of what many modern rock and heavy metal bands sing or scream about.

So I gravitate towards bands that are either Christian rock bands, or rock bands that have Christians in the band, and their lyrics tend to be uplifting and yet have the heavy music that I love.

For example. I have two cds by the band All That Remains, This Darkened Heart and The Fall of Ideals and both of these cds are simply amazing. Absolutely some of THE best musicianship and good lyrics I have ever had the pleasure of happening upon.

Their two guitar attack in their music almost makes my head spin with just how incredibly fast, precise, and melodic guitar playing can get. I can honestly say that I've never heard better guitar playing than are on those two All That Remains cds.

These days I don't listen to the radio much, even the rock on rock stations turns me off. I end up finding stuff on my own.

But years ago, I did listen to the radio a lot. There was lots of rock music that I liked.

One of the rock bands from the 80s that I liked was Def Leppard.

Now regardless whether you love or hate them, Def Leppard has been together now almost 30 years, and have toured and put out cds of the music that they love to play. That's gotta count for something.

I've always liked Phil Collen, their lead guitar player. He's a great lead player, and he happens to look a lot like my younger brother, so I like him and his playing a lot.

Plus Def Leppard has always been content to do their own thing, hard rock without trying to sound like anyone else, or to try to change to fit their music to whatever style is most popular today.

This past Friday night/early Saturday, I was hurting something fierce (my back) and went to get into my recliner for a while.

I turned the TV onto VH1 Classics channel and they were playing what they call, Classic/Current videos. This is where they'll play a classic old music video of a band, and the next video will be a new video by the same band.

As I watched, they played an old video by Def Leppard, and then played a new video by them of a song called "Nine Lives."

The song was pretty good, and standard fare for Def Leppard. Just a good solid Def Leppard song with a nifty guitar lead by Phil Collen.

But John, why did you title this post as Signs of the Apocalypse?

Because the new Def Leppard video for their song Nine Lives had country crooner Tim Mcgraw in it. In fact, Tim McGraw cowrote the song with the band.

Now I don't dislike Tim McGraw, heck he's from the same part of Louisiana I'm from, but I don't like country music. At all. (Tim McGraw seems like a swell guy)

Tim McGraw or no Tim McGraw, the Nine Lives tune sounds pure Def Leppard, and is pretty darn good.

But c'mon! Tim McGraw in a Def Leppard song and video?

Jesus has GOT to be comin' back soon.

Signs of the Apocalypse

http://jamspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/07/signs-of-apocalypse.html

Pathetic

Not too long ago, on a TV show we were watching, in preparation for a wedding, the groom jokingly said he wanted an ATM machine at the reception.

The wedding planner dude thought he was serious and got him one.

I thought it was kinda funny.

But today on the radio I heard that in Israel having an ATM machine at the wedding reception is a growing trend.

The machine conveniently produces a slip of paper showing who gave money via the machine and how much, so the newly flush with cash bride and groom can later thank them properly.

I knew that America was quickly heading for aych-eee-double-hockey-sticks in a hand basket, but it now appears that the whole world is headed there as well.

I can't think of anything tacky-er than this off the top of my head.

Pathetic

http://jamspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/07/pathetic.html

Quote of the Day

"If they're driving slower than me, they're a moron. If they're driving faster than me, they're a maniac."

I heard someone say this on the radio and thought that pretty much sums up how I feel when driving around Brevard County Florida.

Quote of the Day

http://jamspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/07/quote-of-day.html

I Keep Waiting

I keep waiting for something profound to pop into my head and then I'd type it all out and post it here and then bask in the glory of the comments from all the changed lives.

But really, I've got thuthin'.

Lovely Wife was nice enough to prepare a whole bunch of stuff for July 4, and then I crawled out of bed at 4pm and trotted out on the field and threw the game winning touchdown, er, grilled a bunch of hamburgers and hot dogs.

Same old whiny story, except my back was hurting even more than usual, and me and my buddies, Lortab and Skelaxin got the grillin' done and then we all ate like animals.

Years ago when I worked for Delta Air Lines, I got a recipe from a coworker for fruit pizza.

Fruit pizza is a dessert that is made with sugar cookie as "crust" and cream cheese and I forget what else as the "sauce" and then you chop up a bunch of fruits like kiwi, strawberries, bananas, pineapple, mandarin oranges and so forth as the "toppings" and finally a sugary-fruity glaze is drizzled all over the top.

She bought enough stuff to make two fruit pizzas, and of course the first one was demolished that night of the 4th. Then she made another one on the 5th, and we ate on it for a couple more days.

That's easily the best desert I've ever tasted, and we hadn't made it in years, so it was even better after so long.

I love to read, so I've still been on my almost-year-long science fiction kick, and when my back wakes me up and keeps me from sleeping, I go read for a while, and I'll tell you, some science fiction writers have THE most amazing imaginations.

But it's a very rare science fiction writer that has that super imagination AND is able to write really well.

My favorite science fiction writer so far, and by far, is Jack McDevitt. He's the only author so far that has me wanting to go and buy copies of every one of his books, because I know I'll want to read them all over again in a few years. He's a great writer for pulling you into the story so that you feel like you've gone along on his adventures.

Some of the books I've checked out are so bizarre that I had no idea what the author was talking about, so I just read for a while and then finally have to put those away.

I also read all four of the Space Odyssey books by Arthur Clarke, 2001, 2010, 2060, and 3001. The first two were really good, while 2060 was mediocre and 3001 wasn't very good at all.

Mr. Clarke definitely phoned in 3001. It was as if he wrote a list of everything he thought was wrong in present day earth and showed how all of those "problems" were done away with in the next thousand years. Books where an author injects all of his or her likes and dislikes into book form, with a thin coating of fictional story on top, sounds really preachy and I found myself talking back at Mr. Clarke and rolling my eyes with 3001.

At any rate, my recent foray into reading lots of science fiction has been fun, but I find that I have to bring home at least two books from the library for every one I want to read. In other words, if I want 3 or 4 books to last me a couple of weeks, I need to check out at least 6 or 8, because I end up putting half of them down.

So, between hurting, working, and reading, I haven't done much worth blogging about.

I wanted to get out and take some photographs this past weekend, but it has been raining on and off most every day, so when I get up and feel like going, it's usually raining.

That leaves reading.

I could write about politics again, but I need to keep my blood pressure in check, so I'm laying off that for a while.

Take care folks, and I'll be around when I can.

I Keep Waiting

http://jamspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/07/i-keep-waiting.html