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Yet another batch of 13 questions stolen by stealth from all over Al Gore's creation. Has anyone told you a secret this week? Yes, and I was so excited about being trusted like that, that I immediately told the first ten people I saw. (The actual answer is no. No secrets this week, but I'm really hopeful about next week.) Have you ever given someone a hickey? ….Um…. (No, I'm NOT blushing. My face is sunburned.) Who was the last person to call you? Lovely Wife, to remind me to leave the checkbook at home for her. Exciting, eh? Do you think people talk about you behind your back? No, I do not THINK so, I KNOW so! And I'm setting up cameras and microphones and I'm going to prove it. Bwah-ha-ha-ha! Did you watch cartoons as a child? Of course. Buggs Bunny / Looney Tunes (Yosimite Sam, Wile E. Coyote, Daffy, Elmer, etc.); also Tom & Jerry, Scooby Doo, Spider Man. How many siblings do you have? Big Sister, Younger Brother. Big Brother passed away in 2001. Are you shy around the opposite sex? I’m pretty shy around everybody at first. I'm probably more shy around men than women though. I don't know baseball stats or football stats and I despise NASCAR, so to my own detriment, I assume that I have nothing to talk to other men about. What movie do you know every line to? Once upon a time, I knew Smokey and the Bandit pretty good. ("Daddy, look at that big, ugly alligator!" "That reminds me, I need to call your mama.") These days I just know a few lines from various movies. I saw Rocket Man again recently. I know a few lines from that. I like books better, I don't like my entertainment to be spoon fed so much. Yet another way I'm boring. Do you own any band t-shirts? Yes, a couple of Disciple ones. I don't go to many concerts any more, the ticket prices are ridiculous. What is your favorite salad dressing? Ranch. More boring-ness, I'm afraid. And while we're on the subject, why don't restaurants have Thousand Island any more? That was the big dog before Ranch was invented. Do you read for fun? Oh Yeah. Now we're cookin' with gas. A mix of fiction to escape the bonds of this mortal existence for a while, and technical stuff, partly to keep up with changes in engineering for work, and partly because I'm simply a geek and like math and physics related books. Do you cry a lot? No. I haven't cried in a few days now. Really though, I rarely cry, but don't you feel all fresh and renewed after a good cry? Who was the last person to text message you? I'm 44, not 14; there are no text messages in my world. I hate ALL telephones, especially cell phones and use them as little as possible. I'm an electrical engineer who has to ask Number Two Daughter how to do the simplest things on a cell phone because I don't care enough to learn for myself. I hold the frazzlin' thing upside down half the time and you expect me to be able to retrieve and possibly respond to a text message? Not gonna happen. Truthfully, |
Showing posts with label Thursday Thirteen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thursday Thirteen. Show all posts
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Thursday Thirteen #50
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Thursday Thirteen #49
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Still stealing meme questions from other people's blogs to keep up with Thursday Thirteen. All thirteen of today's thingys are stolen without shame from SarahK over at Mountaineer Musings. (She's a super sweet lady and y'all need to go check her blog out, MMMMk? How can you not love a woman who loves that her husband gives her guns for Christmas?) What curse word do you use the most? Crap. I need to come up with some funny alternates. Like fiddle-dee-dee, and so forth. Do you own an iPod? Why yes I do. Lovely Wife surprised me with one for Father's Day, and being the anal retentive music guy, I'll probably be several more weeks in getting all of my music files set up like I want them. I want them to all have the file names in the same fashion, be associated with the proper album art, etc. I have 19GB worth of music on there. I haven't even started thinking about getting some pictures or videos on there yet. Who on your MySpace “Top 8″ do you talk to the most? I do not have a MySpace page. I pretty much hate going out there because people generally have a background that makes it almost impossible to read the text. What time is your alarm clock set for? Set for: 6 a.m. I'm not a person that opens my eyes and just pops out of bed. My Dad was, and Lovely Wife is pretty much. I have always envied folks with that ability. What color is your room? Yellow. A guy is painting the inside of our home this week, and he just finished painting our master bed room yellow, and our master bath baby blue. They look nice. Now if he'd just hurry and do the baseboards, door facings, and the doors, I could hook my new Dell back up. It's seriously putting a crimp into my blog writing and visiting, not to mention preparing photos for my photography blog. Flip flops or sneakers? Sneakers. It's Florida, and some places even allow flip flops at work, but with my monkey toes, I wear Nikes all the time. Would you rather take the picture or be in the picture? Take. I definitely don't like being in photos. What was the last movie you watched? DVD of Rocket Man, one of my favorite comedies. Do any of your friends have children? Yes. Pretty much all of them. Has anyone ever called you lazy? Yes, I call myself lazy. It helps to motivate me to move, pain or no pain. If others have called my that, it was behind my back. Do you ever take medication to help you fall asleep faster? Yes. Tylenol PM is my friend. What CD is currently in your CD player? My portable CD player at home has Rock Garden by Ty Tabor in it. As I type this, I'm listening to my ipod, and a song called La Futura from the CD Ultra Forever by Fold Zandura is playing. Do you prefer regular or chocolate milk? I prefer regular WITH stuff like cereal or cookies, but for just drinking, I prefer chocolate. |
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Thursday Thirteen #48
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Still stealing meme questions from other people's blogs to keep up with Thursday Thirteen.  1. If you were a bicycle, would you be a stingray or a mountain bike? Stingray. Because then, I would be the fondest childhood memories of some folks. The kind of memories you want to go back and relive. Who remembers their mountain bike fondly? I rest my case. (Here's a pic of me and my Sears Gremlin, Stingray style bike when I was a wee lad.)2. What is your least favorite fruit? Do raisins count as fruit? My blog, my rules. I hereby declare, and do affirm, that raisins are my most hated fruit. (I would have said figs but I haven't seen a real fig in over twenty years, I'm ALWAYS on the lookout for raisins lurking in cookies, carrot cake, and Lord help us, cinnamon rolls.) 3. What kind of fruit have you never had? Horned melon, or Kiwano, that I've seen in the grocery stores here in Florida. Looks neato, but I've never eaten it. 4. If you won a $5,000 shopping spree to any store, which store would you pick? Suncoast Bicycles in Inverness, FL. It is the closest bicycle shop to where I live in Florida that is an authorized dealer for CO MOTION brand bicycles. I'd go there, be measured, sized up, and order myself a custom CO MOTION Americano touring bicycle. 5. What brand sports apparel do you wear the most? Nike I guess. I prefer Nike's shoes, but that's just the brand that works and looks best for me. No real zeal behind that choice, totally practicality. 6. Are/were you a good student? Overall I'd say yes. Definitely was when I went back to school for my engineering degree. I was much more mature, plus, if you fall behind in math or science, you're dead meat because they are linearly learned. Things like history you can just pick up wherever you come back to it. Math and sciences are built precept on precept so if you miss something, you won't understand the next thing that is built upon that previous thing. 7. Among your friends, who could you arm wrestle and beat? You continually surprise me. There you go, assuming I have friends. I have none. The question is moot. 8. If you had to choose, what branch of the military would you be in? Navy. My Dad was in the Navy and I always leaned toward it as my choice, but am now too old, fat, and broken down to be of any use to them. 9. Would you ever parachute out of a plane? In my younger days, yes. Now, no. I don't think my back or hips could take the landing. 10. What do you think is your best feature? These are the kinds of questions I really hate, because how could I possibly answer without sounding like a conceited moron? OK, here goes, 11. If you were to win a grammy, what kind of music would it be for? Best Gospel-Rock album like Audio Adrenaline did with their final album, Until My Heart Caves In, earlier this year before disbanding. 12. What is your favorite season? Now, here in Florida, I'd say Fall. There are a handful of trees with color, the temperature is cooler but still plenty warm for doing things, and the sunsets get better in the fall than Spring or Summer. Yeah, Fall. 13. How many members do you have in your immediate family? I'll go with five. Actually, this isn't an easy question. It could be three because there are myself, Lovely Wife, and Number Two Daughter in the house right now. Number One Daughter moved in with Sis in Law after Mother in Law passed away, but that's only on the next street over. So I could say five too. |
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Thursday Thirteen #47
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Still stealing meme questions from other people's blogs to keep up with Thursday Thirteen. 1. Have you ever gotten a truck driver to honk his horn? Oh yeah. When we were kids, way before seat belt laws, Big Brother and I knelt in the rear seat to pump our arms for many miles, hoping to get a trucker to honk his horn. 2. Which would you rather live with: a huge nose or crossed eyes? Hmmm. Jimmy Durante became famous despite having a huge nose. Karan Black became famous despite being cross-eyed. I flipped a coin. It came up "big nose" so I'll just go with that. 3. Would you hang out with someone your best friend didn't like? Yes, I think so. I've always been able to make friends from all over the human spectrum, so it's quite possible some of them might not like one another. 4. Would you hang out with someone your best friend liked, but you didn’t like? Assuming this is all three of us together and not just me and the one I don't like, yes. Otherwise no. I wouldn't hang out with someone I just flat-out couldn't get along with. 5. Have you ever returned a gift? Back to the person who gave it to me? No. At least I don't remember ever doing this. 6. Would you give someone else a gift that had been given to you? Not rewrapped. I might give someone something that was originally a gift to me if another person expressed a desire to have one. But I wouldn't try to pass it off as a new gift. 7. If you could attend an Olympic Event, what would it be? Weight lifting. I once loved to lift weights, although I was never in that class of lifting. 8. How many pairs of shoes do you own? Six, maybe seven, counting slippers and sandals. 9. If your grandmother gave you a gift that you already have, would you tell her? No. 10. Do you sing in the car? Yeah. It's a known fact that if a known bad singer is alone in the car and then sings, at those times, he's every bit as good as Pavaroti. 11. Would you rather jump into a dumpster or into a vat of honey? Honey. It tastes good, and I'm going to have to take a shower right after this anyway, so it might as well be a known substance instead of Lord only knows what from a dumpster. 12. What is your favorite breed of dog? I'd say poodle since we have four of them. They're cute, funny, playful 'til the day they die, and don't shed. 13. Would you donate money to feed starving animals in the winter? Yes. |
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Thursday Thirteen #46
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I'm still stealing meme questions from other people's blogs to keep up with Thursday Thirteen. 1. Which do you think is more dangerous: an angry bear or a hungry white shark? Hungry great white shark. Pretty close call though. I just think that I might end up with some pretty hideous scars, but would survive a bear attack. I'm thinkin' a big ol' shark would take an arm or leg and I'd bleed to death in about two minutes. 2. Would you climb a very high tree to save a kitten? Nah. If I were young and really fit, yes. Not now though. 3. Can you tell the difference between a crocodile and an alligator? No. I don't have eyes in the back of my head to look at and ponder the difference while I'm attempting to run away. 4. Do you drink pepsi or coke? Doesn't matter to me. My taste isn't discriminating enough to care for one over the other. 5. Whats your favorite number? I don't have a favorite number, as in feeling lucky or anything. But if pressed on the matter, I would say that pi is my favorite number. That 3.14159 is just SO darn useful. I kinda dig "e", the base of natural logarithms, which is also irrational, so I'll just call it 2.71828. I'll bet you're sorry you asked that one now, aren't you? 6. If you were a car, would you be an SUV or a sports car? SUV. Before screwing up my back I was an EXCELLENT pack mule; definitely more SUV-like. 7. Have you ever accidentally taken something from a hotel? No. But I've accidentally left things at hotels. And I've never understood the fascination with hotel towels anyway. 8. Would you blow your nose at the dinner table? In general, no. But if it's just immediate family and it's that after-everyone-is-through-eating period when we're all just talking, yeah, I would. Not with visitors though. 9. Have you ever slipped in the bathtub? Yeah, but haven't broken anything or cut anything. Only bruises to show for it. 10. Do you use regular or deodorant soap? Deodorant. After my last back surgery I hallucinate smells, and no longer trust my nose. I'm a bit paranoid about how I smell and use deodorant soap to add a level of mental ease to my worries. 11. Have you ever locked yourself out of the house? No. Not that I recall. Car, yes, house, no. 12. Would you rather make your living as a singing cowboy or as one of the Simpsons voices? I've never watched the Simpsons. Can a person make a living doing one show's character voice? I've always wanted to sing, and I like cowboys, so on the surface, a singing cowboy sounds pretty cool. But then they probably only sing country music, which I hate (despise even). Ok, I'd do a Simpson's voice because I couldn't handle listening to myself sing country music all the time. That's my final answer. 13. If you could invite any movie star to your home for dinner, who would it be? This was actually kind of tough. As a politically conservative person, most movie stars and I would be in a fist fight within about 5 minutes. And if I said Mel Gibson or Tom Selleck, I'd never see my wife again, so I'll go with Bruce Willis. He seems like the kind of person who would be great to have over for a Bar-B-Q |
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Thursday Thirteen #45
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Still stealing meme questions from other people's blogs to keep up with Thursday Thirteen. 1. Would you rather be rich and unhappy, or poor and happy? Poor and happy. Happy is such an elusive state that I think I would have to choose poor and happy. What good is money if your are miserable? 2. If you fell into quicksand, would you try to swim or try to float? I guess I'd try to swim. Wait, no, maybe float; I'm sure Tarzan would show up and throw a vine to me and pull me out. Nah, with my luck, Gilligan would show up instead and two of us would die. I'd try to swim. 3. Do you ask for directions when you are lost? I'm a man. I am therefore never lost. Therefore I never need to ask for directions. (OK, I just said that to make Lovely Wife laugh, I usually call and ask her for directions. She knows the streets better than the cops and firemen do.) 4. Have you ever had a Mexican jumping bean? Yes, and I had forgotten about it until just now. Kinda creeped me out when I found out there was a worm in there. 5. Are you more like Cinderella or Alice in Wonderland? This is hard to answer from a man's point of view, but I'll go with the idea that I'm much more like Alice in Wonderland. I have complete and different worlds inside my head. 6. Would you rather have an ant farm with no ants or a box of crayons with broken points? The crayons, because, hey, even a brand new box gets them all broken within a week or so anyway, so you have to peel the paper and sharpen them puppies. In a perfect world, we would all receive the big boxes of Crayolas with the built in sharpener. I totally lusted after a 64 Crayola box with the sharpener when I was a kid. 7. Do you prefer light or dark bread? Light bread for sandwiches and fresh, hot dark bread with butter along with other types of meals. 8. Do you prefer scrambled or fried eggs? I prefer fried, over easy, but scrambled is so easy that I just usually scramble them. 9. Have you ever been in a car that ran out of gas? Oh yeah. Ask Lovely Wife, who was hugely pregnant and asleep at 2:30am when I called her to come get me. 10. Do you talk in your sleep? I don't think so, unless snoring is some sort of strange sleep talk? 11. Would you rather shovel snow or mow the lawn? Uh, mow. Enough snow to have to shovel implies that I live somewhere with hard winters. No thanks, I'll mow, sweat, then swim in the pool or take a shower. 12. Would you rather be bitten by a poisonous snake or constricted by a python? Well, if it's guaranteed that I'm gonna die, then the poisonous snake bite. But if it's not a given that I will die, the python, because I always carry a knife, and I'd have a fighting chance to cut that sucker clean in half before I die. Go down fighting if I can, ya know? 13. Have you ever played in the rain? Yes. I grew up in Louisiana. It rained a lot. If you're out playing, and there is no lightning, we'd sometimes just keep playing football or whatever. |
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Thursday Thirteen #44
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Still stealing meme questions from other people's blogs to keep up with Thursday Thirteen. 1. Have you ever thrown-up after a roller coaster ride? Nope. Roller coasters don't make me sick. It's the ones that spin, like the teacup thingies and repetitive circular motion rides like that that make me sick. I have never blown chunks in public after riding one though. 2. What is your dream car? I don't think I've ever dreamt of a car, but assuming this means my fantasy car, I'd say a blue Shelby Cobra. 3. What is your favorite cartoon of all time? Looney Tunes / Buggs Bunny. I especially love Transylvania 6-5000 where Buggs yells Abra-Capocus at the vampire and the vampire has a bat's head on the vampires body, then Buggs yells Pocus-Cadabra and the vampire changes to the huge vampire's head on the bat's little body. Classic comedy there. 4. Have you ever eaten a dog biscuit? Nope. Never had reason to, and I've never been the type of person to do things on a dare either. 5. If you were in a car sinking in a lake, what would you do first? I'd probably first yell out that my mother was right, I SHOULD have been scared of the electric windows not working if ever the car ran off a bridge or something. I'd try to roll a window down so the car could fill up with water and allow me out. I can swim. Even if the window didn't roll down, water would come in and when the pressure equalized I could then hopefully open one of the doors and swim to safety. 6. Have you ever ridden in an ambulance? No. That's a good thing, right? 7. Can you pick something up with your toes? Yes. I even wrote a post about my monkey toes one time. 8. How many remote controls do you have in your house? In the whole house? Golly Jee Willakers, all together for all TVs, video cameras, VCRs, DVDs, around 10-12. 9. Have you ever fallen asleep in school? Not that I remember. I'm actually good at staying awake despite being very sleepy. So I can get sleepy at work, but don't worry about actually falling asleep. 10. How many times have you flown in an airplane in the last year? None. 11. How many foreign countries have you visited? None. I've never been out of the U.S. 12. If you were out of shape, would you compete in a triathlon if you were somehow guaranteed to win a big, gaudy medal? What do you mean "IF" I were out of shape? 13. Would you go swimming in shallow waters where, one year earlier, a shark had attacked a child? No, probably not. There are shark attacks every year north of where we live, and that's just close enough to make me not want to go into the ocean down here where I live. I'm chicken like that, being one of many millions in the JAWs generation. |
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Thursday Thirteen #42
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In my lame attempt to keep at this Thursday Thirteen thingy, I'm back to stealing meme questions from other people's blogs. 1. Are you an innie or an outie? Innie. That's a stupid question. What, is this kindergarten recess show and tell? 2. Have you ever worn bell-bottoms? Yes. I remember a pair I had in the sixth grade (73-74) that were way bigger than my feet. I was so proud of them then. I'm so ashamed now. 3. Have you ever written a song? I've written lyrics, but have never put music to them. 4. Can you make change for a dollar right now? Heck no. I've been married 22 years. My wife doesn't let me have that much money on me. 5. Have you ever been in the opposite sex’s public toilet? Sort of. When I managed restaurants, I cleaned a mean bathroom, both the men's and women's. (From those experiences, I found out that many people are disgusting pigs.) 6. Have you ever smelled your own feet? Of course. This is one of those questions I don't think anyone can say no to if they've ever played outside in the summer. But, since I became an adult, I always buy odor eaters for all of my shoes. They really work. I even have odor eaters in my slippers. (No, I'm not kidding.) 7. Do you like ketchup on or beside your french fries? On the side please. I walk a tightrope of OCD mania when I eat things with my fingers. I wipe my fingers off after EVERY bite. I go through some napkins, believe you me. (Sorry about that, Sheryl Crow) Ketchup on my fingers might push me totally over the edge. I'm not kidding either, it's a whole mental dance that happens in my massive cranium whenever I eat foods with my fingers; half-way between gluttonous desire and Howard Hughes hand-washing mania. 8. Can you touch your tongue to your nose? No. I can stick out my tongue AND touch my nose, but I CANNOT touch my tongue to my nose. Comprende? 9. Have you ever been a boy/girl scout? No. My older brother was a Cub Scout, and my mother tried the den mother thing and I think she almost had a conniption (nervous breakdown) one time and that ruined my chances of ever doing that. I actually never wanted to, but I couldn't have if I had wanted to. Hmmm. I wonder if someone poured ketchup on Sainted Mother's fries at that Cub Scout meeting and sent her over the edge, and doomed me to the same affliction? 10. Have you ever broken a mirror? No. I don't remember ever breaking one, but now that I think about it, my life really sucked between 1987 and 1994, so it's possible. 11. Have you ever put your tongue on a frozen pole? No. Big Sis used to try to talk me into touching my tongue to those aluminum ice trays with the big handles that you pulled up to break the ice loose, but even as a kid, I could tell from the tone of her voice that she was up to no good. Come to think of it, Big Sis is still up to no good. If nothing else, I have a strong sense of self-preservation. Never try anything you're being asked to do if the asker will not demonstrate it first. Plus, I've seen A Christmas Story about a million times like everybody else. 12. What is your biggest pet peeve? The religion of global warming. Just the fact that the proponents of the global warming scare are now trying to get us to call it global climate change so they won't have any more embarrassing things like the cancelled global warming conferences this past winter due to blizzards makes my point for me. If they can get everyone to stop saying global warming, and insert global climate change instead, then during the cold winter months charlatans like Al Gore can raise more money. (I'm cynical, sue me.) It's tough trying to promote your beliefs in global warming when folks are seeing blizzards and record low temperatures on the weather channel. As a Christian, I have tried to speak to people over the years about spiritual things, and have had everything from good, honest communication to being cussed at like you wouldn't believe. So I have a bit of an idea what global warming believers feel when their pronouncements are rejected by people like me. For the record, I believe that the earth is warming, but in a normal, natural cycle that paleoclimatologists have told us have happened many times in the earth's existence. I just don't believe that man is causing it, nor do I believe driving hybrids and using flourescent bulbs help matters one iota. Oh yeah, radical Islam is a close second. 13. Do you slurp your drink after its gone? Yes, but ever so gently so as to not annoy those nearby. |
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Thursday Thirteen #41
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1. When I'm laying in bed and trying to go to sleep, yet Lovely Wife is still up watching TV, and I hear her, across the house, laugh at something funny. I love her laugh. 2. When I'm sitting at our computer Photoshopping digital photos, and Number Two Daughter comes up and leans over and hugs my neck from behind. 3. When Number One Daughter comes in and says, "What's up Homey G.? High five!" and makes me give her a high five. 4. Sister in Law always says, "I love you" to us when we're ending a phone conversation. Yet she only lives one block over from us.  5. Angel, our oldest and first and smallest poodle, a white toy poodle (6 pounds), basically took to me early on, even though Lovely Wife picked her out an brought home. She's considered "Daddy's" dog. When I lay down in bed to go to sleep at night, she jumps on the bed and comes and stands and tucks her head down, sticks it under my chin and then reaches up with her left paw and scratches me, demanding I love on her a little bit. If I stop too soon for her, she scratches me to let me know she needs more lovin'.  6. Rosie, our red miniature poodle, gets all excited and runs around and spinning in circles when she comes back into the house from taking a poop in the back yard. We always know when she's been out taking care of some business because otherwise she's very lady-like and sedate. Not to get too crass here, but as a man, I can appreciate the benefits of having your plumbing in good working order.7. Lilly, one of our "puppies" that were born to Rosie, the one I mentioned just above, is also our biggest poodle. She's a miniature but very stout and heavily built like her father. She's also the one that needs the most attention. She'll jump up in my lap and then just throw herself back in your arms like a little baby for belly rubs. She's the alpha dog and is very good at making her needs known.  8. Sassy, our cat who is about 12 now, is what I call our forgotten child. She waits until I'm on the computer and jumps up next to me and for a couple of minutes makes a pretense of looking out of the window, but a few seconds later she steps between me and the keyboard, stretching luxuriously and rubs the top of her head on my hand, like, "Pet me with this hand today. She "tolerates" our dogs, but when they get too uppity, she can still do that 32-punches-per-second thing that cats do and scares the crap out of the dogs for a while.9. Lovely Wife loves her some flowers. And this far south in Florida, you can have them blooming pretty much year 'round. She keeps the place all prettied up. Being a typical guy, I wouldn't bother if I were alone. They make great fodder for photographs too. 10. I turned both of my daughters onto heavy metal. Back when they thought the Backstreet Boys, Nsync, and Spice Girls were the bomb, I took them to a couple of Disciple concerts and straightened them up. 11. Sainted Mother still calls me on my birthday every October and tells me the "forty-xxx years ago right now, I was…" story. 12. Big Sis and I were far enough apart in age that, as kids, we didn't get along that great, but as adults we're very close. If my life seems boring sometimes, I can be assured of a great story if I call her. Something's ALWAYS causing drama in her life. I don't understand her ability to listen to country music though. I blame Keith Urban.  13. Mr. Spike. Spike isn't a girl, but he's our fourth poodle. He's a mama's boy and loves Lovely Wife to distraction, but he still freaks out when I get home from work, and he likes to sit with me in my recliner. He's a gentle, laid back doggy, but when he sees a strange dog, he "gets all hound dog on us" and lets out a long, Bah-uuuurrrrrr! To warn the family that potential danger is afoot. He's jet black with Sylvester Stalone sad eyes and a white patch on his chin that we call his "soul patch." His eyes and natural expression is like Eeeyore's, from Winnie the Pooh. (The black poodle there is Mr. Spike, and the white on behind him is his sister, Lilly.)I'm blessed! |
Thursday, May 17, 2007
No Thursday Thirteen, but...
I could sure use your help for ideas.
Seriously, I'm thinking of stopping my participation in Thursday Thirteen though I like it a lot.
I just can't think of any ideas that inspire me enough to even write about, so if any of y'all have some good ideas, leave them for me in the comments.
I would appreciate it a lot. I don't want to quit, but like this week, I could only come up with a partial list of random things. Not even 13.
Thanks.
Seriously, I'm thinking of stopping my participation in Thursday Thirteen though I like it a lot.
I just can't think of any ideas that inspire me enough to even write about, so if any of y'all have some good ideas, leave them for me in the comments.
I would appreciate it a lot. I don't want to quit, but like this week, I could only come up with a partial list of random things. Not even 13.
Thanks.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Thursday Thirteen #36
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A few weeks ago, I bought a Nikon 18-200mm VR lens for my digital camera. I LOVE it. Then Tuesday afternoon I looked on Cute Overload and saw that some pictures I had made of a baby sandhill crane had made the cut, and had been posted on their site. Wuhoo! There's a verse in the Bible that I'll paraphrase here, If any man thinks he's standing, he better beware, he just might be about to fall. Instead of being able to bask in the glory of my successful entry into Cute Overload, my back was so messed up yesterday that I had to stay home from work. That's life, eh? So I'm taking the easy way out on this week's Thursday Thirteen and am posting 13 recent photos taken with my new lens (did I mention that I LOVE it?), including a few more of the baby sandhill crane and family. Give them a click to enlarge. 1. Sandhill crane in Melbourne, Florida.  2. Baby was with two adults, one of which honked at me in crane, saying, "Not one step closer buddy." (I speak fluent crane.)  3. Tsk, tsk, they didn't look both ways before crossing the road.  4. Baby runs from one parent to the other.  5. Dad, I think. His red was brighter than the other adult's.  6. A surfer at Sebastian Inlet State Park, Florida.  7. A plastic flower in our fountain.  8. Jetty at Sebastian Inlet State Park.  9. A boat heading west toward the Indian River Lagoon through Sebastian Inlet.  10. Under the bridge over Sebastian Inlet.  11. Some green stuff, kelp, seaweed, or whatever growing in the water of Sebastian Inlet.  12. Two brown pelicans silhouetted against the sunlight reflecting on the water in Sebastian Inlet.  13. Little birds looking for food in Sebastian Inlet.  NOW DO YOU SEE WHY I SAY, "I LOVE THIS LENS?" |
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Thursday Thirteen #35
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1. Well, Duh! They have to have a barber pole out front! Not some bogus barber pole painted on the building's front glass either. A real, attached to the wall outside the front door, red, white, and blue barber pole. Extra points if the barber pole spins too. 2. When you walk inside, you must smell a strong smell of hair tonic. You know, the old-school, spice aftershave kinda smell? Yeah, that one. 3. When you look around, you MUST see a broad cross section of working men waiting for a haircut. Plumbers with beards, engineers in white shirts, pizza delivery guy, and a couple of known good men from church helps too. 4. Beware of walking into an empty barber shop. Sure, there are certain times of day when it's possible for a barber shop to be empty, but it's almost impossible to find a GOOD barber shop that's empty. Waiting is part of getting your hair cut, so suck it up! 5. Although this is getting harder and harder to find in this day of AIDs and all, but if you walk into a barber shop and see a customer with shaving foam over the tops of his ears and a barber carefully shaving around his ears with a straight razor, you can take it to the bank, this is your barber shop. Some barber shops only do this on request these days. 6. If there are mounted deer heads and fish on the walls, this is a very good sign. 7. If there are ten years of back issues of Field And Stream and Guns And Ammo magazines, and lots of sections of today's newspaper laying around, this is also a very good sign. (If they have Maxim and GQ, then RUN, do not walk, RUN out the door. That's a deal breaker there.) 8. If you happen to see someone get a world-class flat-top in the shop, even if you just want a regular hair cut yourself, you've found your new barber. If he can do a killer flat-top, he can do a great regular man's haircut in his sleep. With fingernail clippers. 9. If you see a stack of those padded booster seat/boards leaning against the wall for young boys to be set at the proper height for a haircut, that's a good sign this might be your barber shop. 10. Real barber chairs. They have to look like they were made and mounted to the floor in 1935, and have that big arm on the side so the barber can raise you up with a satisfying ker-klunk, ker-klunk, ker-klunk. This is also the sign of a good barber shop. 11. If the barber shop is full of barbers and customers who are all on first name basis with one another, this is a good sign also. Part B of this is if you can detect early on that some of the guys in the shop just come in to visit and hang out. Real barber shops are also somewhat of a hangout for regular guys. 12. They have to have mirrors both behind and in front of you so you can sit there and contemplate the infinity of your own reflection in the receding views. This is also a must. 13. If the barbers have those little wooden handled brushes with the cream colored bristles to brush the hair off of your neck and face, this is another good sign. Add bonus points if the last thing he does is to shake a little talcum powder on the brush for your final brush down. I could go on and on here. There is much to the makeup of a good barber shop. A good barber shop and a particular barber you're willing to sit and wait on because he cuts your hair really well is a hard thing to find. The barber I have gone to for years here in Palm Bay doesn't have the mounted deer heads and fish, but the owner and his son are both barbers there, and the owner's grandson is an up and coming stock car racer in the southeast, so there are racing pictures and car photos of the boy through the years on the walls instead. I don't like NASCAR, but I can sure relate to the pride of a boy's dad and grandad in his efforts to make something of himself in a competitive sport like that.  Plus, the John Wayne clock on the wall there makes up for any missing stuffed deer heads and fish. Can't go wrong with men who still honor John Wayne like that, now can you? |
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Thursday Thirteen #34
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 …needed to move a set of Logic Analyzer/Pattern Generator configuration files to a device that only accepts 3.5in floppy disks? (No way to send these large files over a network connection.) …had trouble finding a "controlled" copy of said files, because your Configuration Management guy who controls these computer files just happens to be in class yesterday. …out of 6 or 7 computers you had access to, you finally found one, ONE, with a copy of WINZIP on it? …zipped up (compressed) a bunch of files, and divided them to be able to fit on 1.44MB, 3.5in floppy disks? …but could only find one useable 1.44MB, 3.5in floppy disk? …so you loaded up the first file on the 1.44MB, 3.5in floppy disk and transferred it to the Logic Analyzer/Pattern Generator? …then deleted the first file and repeated the process with the other pieces of .zip file, over and over? …then found the zip utility on the Logic Analyzer/Pattern Generator (thank God for miracles!) and made the four files back into one .zip file? …then unzipped the reconstituted .zip file into it's constituent files, safely ensconced in a folder you carefully created for them on the Logic Analyzer/Pattern Generator? …layed hands on the Logic Analyzer/Pattern Generator, prayed, and loaded one of the configuration files to see if it would accept the file after manipulating it like described above? …explosively let out the breath you didn't realize you've been holding for the past little while because the file actually successfully configured the Logic Analyzer/Pattern Generator? …tried each of the other formerly compressed and divided files, one by one, to ensure that they successfully configure the Logic Analyzer/Pattern Generator as well? …wondered how a cutting edge engineering outfit could get in such a fix, dependent at times on 1993 technology? So much for me wishing for the "good old days." I had enough of the good old days, yesterday. |
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Thursday Thirteen #33
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1. Lovely Wife's mother passed away this past Sunday. If you pray, please pray for her and her sister. 2. I love funny people. A good laugh is a blessing. 3. There are some really good people in this world. The calls and visits and food brought by friends and fellow church members after Lovely Wife's mother passed away Sunday has been overwhelming. It's quite humbling to see good people in action. 4. The orange blossoms are kicking into high gear on our orange trees. It's like honeysuckle on steroids. Walking out into our back yard is an instant mood changer, the smell envelopes you. This time of year Lovely Wife and I start taking windows-down car rides through areas with orange groves. It's the most beautiful smell in the world, not to mention a great drive with someone you love. 5. Our duly elected Repuplicans in Congress and Senate are spineless wimps, and our duly elected Democrats are complete idiots, trying to pass legislation that tells our enemies our war plans. Not a good combination. It's just a matter of time before their spinelessness and idiocy results in another major terrorist attack in America. We probably won't learn from that one either. Bummer. 6. Karl Marx said, "It (religion) is the opium of the people." Of course, I disagree, but if he had said big time sports was the opium of the people, I might tend to agree these days. 7. I was briefly the proud owner of a pink RAZR phone the other day. But then Number One Daughter snatched it and put her sim card in it. (It was bought through the cell phone account in my name, so technically it was mine for a couple of hours until she got home and claimed it.) What do men have against pink? I like pink. I don't own anything pink, but I like pink. 8. Oops, I lied in number 7 above. My hand-me-down ipod shuffle is in a pink protective cover. My bad. 9. I ordered a new camera lens last week, probably wouldn't have if I could have forseen my Mother In Law's passing, but I got the lens yesterday. It's a Nikon 18-200mm Vibration Reduction lens. It has amazing capabilities. 10. I found out this week that funeral home people refer to cremated remains as "cremains." 11. The funeral home's catalog of urns for ashes include a "scattering line" of urns with easy opening lids to aid loved ones in their ash-scattering needs. 12. We had a new pool filtering device installed for our pool this week. The pool was scummy green, but is already looking good due to Lovely Wife's and the new filter's efforts. It should be swimmable this weekend. I'm looking forward to that. 13. In case y'all didn't notice, I started a photography blog. |
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