Well, except for one slip-up of half a ciggie while drunk with drunk friends on January 5th, I have been smoke-free for two months. And nicotine-gum-free for a month. But the road ahead of me is much, much longer. I still experience those deliciously torturous psychological "triggers," the most prominent one being the process of watching others smoke. Perhaps because I instantly recall that "relaxed, satisfied feeling" I experienced as soon as I began to inhale. And I remember it as a social experience . . . with my smokin' buddies. But my formerly more prominent "light-one-up-now!" triggers, like sitting in front of the home computer, finishing a satisfying meal, finishing a satisfying f*#k, driving, having a cocktail . . . well, THOSE seem to be under control. So far. I almost have myself believing that there is only ONE person who could command me to light up a ciggie . . . perhaps because he looks so delicious doing so himself . . .
I'm so worn out from dealing with our respective medical situations, I can barely think in English or German, much less Spanish or advanced physiology.
So rather than get wired on caffeine (which is certain to turn my stomach into the lower GI equiv. of a roman candle) I'm putting my mind in park to recoup a bit before I head off to deal with other household needs... and hopefully find myself able to study again, just for sh-ts and giggles :< !
I've been wanting to do a parody of the "Eharmony.com" commercials for some time (ever notice how the couples are never mixed race, and always wear nauseatingly coordinated "lands end" outfits?) but even that kind of sardonic creativity is beyond me now, so I found some good parodies on Youtube, and some other fun stuff.
Women- know your limits!
70s era doll commercial... the mind just reels (and salivates) at the thought of a feminist deconstruction/critique of this one!
60s era Tupperware Party commercial... another one I'd just love to sink my feminist teeth into... the scary thing is that- unlike the first video- this is FOR REAL, they actually lived that way, and looked at women that way!
Finally, a brilliant original piece by Brittany Dolynchuk
In her own words she describes it thusly...
This video is mean't to show how young girls look at magazines and see a distorted unrealistic Photoshopped images that are meant to depict real beauty. It tries to show some of the crazy things young girls and women do to themselves in order to meet such an impossible standard. It is inspired by the commercial from Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty, and I think it really is self explanatory in showing how we have lost our grasp on what it really means to be truly beautiful inside and out.
Now on to the "E-harmony" parodies, with no additional commentary or ado.
This one is a real commercial, but is very well done, very funny, and does raise the same issue I wonder about with them.
"E-disharmony.com" parody... very funny and edgy/offensive.
Image source: freefoto.com, used under the Creative Commons License. This is a superb site for freely usable photos under the CCL and related "open source" style licensing.
Everyone knows the proverb/aphorism "a chain is only as strong as its weakest link" but my research hasn't turned up anything definitive as to its origin. It seems to have been around in some form for hundreds if not thousands of years... which makes sense, since chains have been too!
In any case, this aphorism and image are an apt summary of how things are with me and Tess right now.... and to go into more detail would take more time and energy than I have, or background on us than most any of you have.
Just a few tidbits which don't require so much explaining...
We believe we have isolated out why Tess' migraines have been so intractable since November, and are addressing it. When we'll see the fruits of that, I don't know, but I know many of you are wondering and worried (and THANK YOU for both! ) so...
Tess is really taking to the concept and action of blogging. I expect she'll be more active and INTERactive on multiply and "whygod" than I for the foreseeable future.
And speaking of Tess and "whygod"- a special request... she doesn't know I'm making this... (she's asleep as I should be except that one of my "weak links" is acting up on me)
If you'd like to engage her in talking about life, spirituality, etc., but don't want to join "whygod" please let her know, so she can consider posting to her blog more too. Blogging is becoming an important lifeline to external reality and human interaction for her... its damn near the only one she has, so... .
As for me... the same realities which became so overwhelming that I had to draw back from the amount and nature of my virtual interaction remain so. Some are a little better, some dramatically worse (I don't know what's up with my gut, but its nothing good, and its become a figurative and literal pain in the @ss!)
I have realized one thing... after what- 25 years of interaction with other people on the computer, starting with the old dial up BBS powered by caged hamsters in the 80s... that the one thing which cannot be accomplished in virtual reality is the establishment and enjoyment of Gemütlichkeit. (If you don't speak the superior German language click here to read what it means.)
You can do some of the groundwork for its establishment, as I did with the BBS parties I hosted back in the 80s, or as Snark does with the PaN crowd at Gino's and the Anvil now, but... there is no such thing as virtual gemütlichkeit!
So... I'll continue posting pictures and videos of interest both places, but keeping my head down on Multiply.
Finally- this deserves a post of its own, but I'm too exhausted from life to do it now... the death of William F. Buckley Jr. is striking a powerful resonance with my feelings for my father. My earliest memories of my father include his introducing me to The National Review, and helping me to learn to read by sitting with me as I read it... always starting with WFB's column.
Enjoy it while you can... I'm sure its copyright infringement, or that the same ninny brigade whose nickers got so twisted over my slide show will take him out.
The reaction from the audience speaks volumes . . .
I never used to think much of Kimmel, particularly because he always seemed, at best, "borderline homophobic." So I am not sure if he's actually becoming more tolerant (not just by this particular "funny," but also because he seems to be "getting it" in general, lately). Pandering to popular acceptance? Perhaps. But when I saw this, I could NOT stop laughing. First time the guy's been able to do that for me.
For those not in the know, or not in Chicago, the council last night passed another tax increase. We were already one of the highest taxed metro areas in the country and by far the highest in the Great Lakes / Midwest region, but they raised the sales tax AGAIN! The news reports are saying this makes "us" the highest taxed city in the nation now. I'm not sure if that means all of Cook County, or Cook County + Chicago (which also has a pretty heavy tax burden on its own!)
The Cook County Council-
as seen through a "reality filter"
It is well that the Logo of the Democratic party is the donkey, because these guys are a herd of jack-asses!
Of course they had no problem raising our taxes... its much easier to feed the fattened sow which is the county government than to actually... oh... DO THEIR JOBS... and run it well.
I'm most irate because this hits hardest those who can least take it- the poor, unemployed, seniors, those on fixed income, etc. Those who have more income have the means to avoid Chicago's confiscatory taxes, and are doing so in droves. So who gets left paying it? Fools who don't know any better in some cases, but mostly people who don't have any choice.
The little guy doesn't have a 2nd home in Indiana or Wisconsin where he can buy things for 3-5% less.
The little guy can't whore himself out to lobbyists for tricks and treats.
The little guy can't turn around and pass the pain on to someone else- they're at the bottom of the food chain, and these maggots are feasting on their corpse.
All the little guy can do is vote for someone who gives a rat's- or donkey's- ass about them... and its about time the people of this county did so!
Can you say "Recall" boys and girls? Good... lets get it on!
The cartoon above is the original cartoon by Thomas Nast which associated the Donkey with the Democratic party
I came across this on a great site to which I go often, archive.org It has a collection of all sorts of media (print, video, audio, photographic) which is freely available and freely usable, usually under the "creative commons license." Were I to go into the details and history of the "open source software / shared knowledge" movement, I'd put the makers of sominex out of business and crash PaN's page stats, but suffice to say, if you're a free thinking libertarian, classical Jeffersonian Liberal type, you ought to know about this, and you will love it. The most famous outgrowth of this is the operating system LINUX, which totally blows Windows away in security, functionality, quality of code, etc.
This is Episode 4 on the separation of church & state (maybe this'll explain us yanks to ya Val... or maybe you should just drink a black and tan and give up, *grin*) which is described thusly by the authors/bloggers:
Join us for a discussion with Eddie Tabash current chair of the national legal committee of Americans United for separation of Church and State as well as the Council for Secular Humanism's First Amendment Task Force. In addition to his better known role as an official campaign speaker and debater for numerous presidential candidates (including Bill Clinton & Jimmy Carter) Tabash is also a professional counter-apologist having debated such world famous Christian philosophers as: Peter van Inwagen, Greg Bahnsen, William Lane Craig and Richard Swinburne on the existence of God. In an extended interview, Tabash discusses a wide-range of topics: from disarming the arguments of Christian philosophers to the "unholy alliance" between the religious right and the postmodern academic left. The show concludes with a disturbing glimpse at the difference just one Supreme Court justice could make for American secularists...and the very real possibility that we may be on the verge of a theocratic America.
One of the Obama videos I posted last night, the one I said gave me lactose intolerance problems, has had embedding disabled. I said of it
Not sure what to make of this video, other than that being lactose intolerant something this cheesy is putting my intestinal health in grave danger, not to mention my sanity... but maybe that's the point, to be as over the top as my slideshow. I see it uses the same silly picture of him with the Superman statue as I did, so...
It was embeddable last night, but now isn't, so if you want to watch it, you have to click here. The same user has posted several other videos which seem more to be VERY hagiographic. Here's a more blatant one... I wonder how long before it gets yanked.
I just don't get the "cult of Obama." Aside from Jesus Christ and my wife, the only thing I've come close to having that sort of reverence for or worship of was the 21 year old cheddar I found in Tomah Wisconsin years ago. People is people, for feck's sake.
We all drop stinky loads after mawing down a bag of our favorite junk food
We all think of adding a level of hell to Dante's 7 when someone with 20 items in their carts gets in front of us in the 12 items or less isle.
We've all followed the crowd and enjoyed or participated in something we've later come to rue and regret. (In my case, it was string ties in the 80s, and the Bee Gees in the 70s.)
Would Mother Teresa or Albert Schweitzer or get the same level of adulation, the same exemption from any criticism or critique?! I doubt it! As I found on JibJab, one might as well advocate the clubbing of baby seals or the torture of kittens as critique him.
To paraphrase my favorite booze commercial- a mind is a like a parachute, it only works when when open. This is a presidential primary for pity's sake, not the Immaculate Election!
The brilliant Hillary Clinton Ad
Of course, my reaction to this was the same as every other commentator with a few active brain cells- that it takes after Johnson's [in]famous "Daisy Ad"
Now, I can't claim I remember this commercial- I heard about it on cable TV, but its striking how similar the ads are... and for good reason, the same guy produced them both!
Heaven knows, I'm no fan of either Clinton, but I have defended Senator Clinton when she was attacked unfairly because she has 2 "x" chromosomes, and I've got to give her credit for laying out the issue so well here, even if it is a reprise of an older spot.
Initially I was proud of America for being open to Obama's candidacy, and was pleased he was appealing to the "higher angels" in us. But two things have soured me on him.
1) The more he speaks, the less he says. If brevity is the soul of wit... the inverse is holding true with him. His campaign is like a pep rally with no game following... a warm up without an act!
2) The fanaticism of his fans, and the way they treat naysayers. I'd already noticed this and been quite off put by it before I started getting feces for it. No one should be worshiped, adored, and exempted from critical scrutiny... much less someone running to be the modern day equivalent of Caesar Augustus!
Starring Liam Kyle Sullivan as Kelly, Chris, Dad, and "Mother Grandma." Notice the lovely photos of Mel Gibson, Bush and Cheney that they have on their dining room walls. And note the famous comedienne who makes a cameo appearance.
Brock Olivo, a former MU football star, enters the race for the U.S. Ninth District at the Gasconade County Lincoln Day in Hermann, Missouri. Is it any wonder America's as screwed up as it is, when we elect actors, failed businessmen, cat killers and now dumb-as-bag-o'-hammers athletes to run for our country's most important jobs? Christ on a pogo-stick, save us!
SnarkAngel, JoJo has misplaced your email address, so I can't get it either!
The person asking for the dvds has left a message on the post on my blog, with her email address. It was on her blog, but when I tried it last night it didn't work. I've tried a test today and it seemed OK. It's audio.video@gmx.us
Watch out, I'm a verysauer Kraut. People at JibJab are thumbs-downing my slide show, and one even took offense. Watch out, expect hell to be freezing over, but Hillary Clinton was right again when she said...
As for public speaking... I do know a bit about this, it being a major part of my former career. One time, when I went on a bit too long, I was lovingly chided by a member whom I'd noticed had dozed off. He advised me to put a lozenge in my mouth- when it was done, so was my sermon.
Before I speak, I have something important to say. - Groucho Marx
"As an apple of gold in silver carvings is a word spoken at the right time for it." - Proverbs 25:11
KEEP IT SIMPLE The Lord's Prayer contains 56 words The Gettysburg Address contains 272 words The Ten Commandments contains 297 words The USA Declaration of Independence contains 300 words A bag of Lay's Potato Chips contains 401 words The IRS Form 1040EZ contains 418 words Average USA-Today cover story contains 1,200 words A recent federal publication on setting the price of cabbage contains 26,911 words
One other relevant matter. I say this informatively, not defensively. It is axiomatic that the longer the speech, post, etc., the less time which went into it.
Likewise, a short story or novella is much more difficult to write than a full length novel. Reading War and Peace or any of the Victorian era serial-novels is like climbing Mt. Everest but for those of us who run at the mouth, writing that much is like breathing- it would take great effort and concentration to do less of it!
For my 12-20 minute sermons, I put sometimes close to an hour per minute into them. For these posts... well, I type at over 100 words a minute, and the only time I don't have anything to say is when I'm under anesthesia, so you do the math! Count the words, divide by 100, add in a few minutes for finding a screwy picture on Wiki or video on Youtube, and... you do the math.
You'll know I REALLY have too much time on my hands when my posts get shorter but more pointed, with multiple layers of meaning, as my sermons and Bible studies once did when I got paid to shoot my mouth off, and was doing it "in the stead and by the command of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."
Quick, look around and grab the closest book to where you’re sitting. No scooting closer to that unopened copy of Whitehead’s Function of Reason, cheaterm just grab what’s nearby right now. Willing to say what it is?
Tom Levenson just tagged me with the “123” meme so it looks like I have no choice. Here is my mission, should I choose to accept it:
look up page 123 in the nearest book look for the fifth sentence then post the three sentences that follow that fifth sentence on page 123.
I get:
Bode well (or ill) show good (or bad) signs for the future. Boding n. (OE bodian f. Boda messinger) Bodega n. a cellar or shop selling wine and food, esp. in a Spanish-speaking country. (Sp. F. L apotheca f, Gk apotheka storehouse) Bodge var. of BOTCH.
I promised the boys a drunk post..........this is it
I wish I knew how to post a youtube judy tenuta video, but I don't
I had a wonderful bday........THANK YOU to all who came........rug goth, great gift, snark, thanks for the pizza and gunga.........thank you for just being you
Except... those of you who were there and heard me talk about Tess and her migraines, William F. Buckley Jr., etc- ... you know now why I use fonts and colors... I use those to try to convey the same complex intonation and other verbal gymnastics I use when speaking... to give my written text the same "color" and intensity I have when speaking *grin*
Happy Birthday Catie, it was great to meet you fun to be with the others!
) so...
