BLACK

20 years or so ago I was talked into investing in a 401k. With my situation at the time I took the option to catch up and invested almost all my income for over a month, or was it two, into the 401k. I had a fair amount of money in the market but then October 19th 1987, aka BLACK TUESDAY, came along and stole over halve my money, just up and stole it.



Now our financial guy from where I worked said 401ks were great. You were able to put in tax free money and let that extra money work for you. The investment generally recovers if there are problems, while the markets are high your money is really multiplying, while the markets are low you are able to purchase more stock than you normally can and, once the markets bounce back, you will have more stock to multiply.

By the time I left the company at the end of 1988 my stock had indeed bounced back but not much more but still, I was happy. The new company I work for offered 401k so I jumped in with both feet. A certain percent of my pay goes into it every pay that way should I ever get a raise the amount of money I invest also goes up. It has been working out very well for me.

Then along came 2001 and the markets were doing terrible for some time. Then September 11 happened and so many people lost their lives. The towers fell and the markets went down with them. Some people were hit hard by that, me not as much but still it took forever for things to recover. But during that time things moved forward. Stocks were low and I was able to invest in more stock than I normally could. In the end I finally recovered from this and was doing OK once again and then yesterday.

Yesterday the stock markets took a beating. They were down over 500 points but ended the day a bit better then that. So I printed off my 401k balance so today I can see how bad it really was and, once again buy more depressed stock and wait for things to get better.

I do recognize a pattern however. Black Tuesday back in 1987 was of course a Tuesday. September 11, 2001 was a Tuesday and finally yesterday was again a Tuesday. Looking back the great crash in 1929 was also a Tuesday. I wonder if I can withdraw all my money on Monday nights and hold on to it for a day until Wednesday and the reinvest it again. I would be so much further ahead.

Anyway since it was on my mind I thought I would mention it. Despite the fact that days like yesterday happen, 401k are a bargain. If your company offers one to you consider taking advantage of if. If they offer a match program in 401k then take maximum advantage of what they offer.

They say that if you were to invest money in 401k from the age of 20 to the age of 30, x amount of dollars every pay period, and not invest another penny you would have the same amount or more money then the person that started investing at age 30 and kept investing the same x amount of dollars every pay period until they retire. It really is a good thing to do and the earlier you can get involved, even if it is not very much money, in the long run you will hardly miss the money and you will be surprised how much money you have. When I retire I will not be rich beyond all belief but I will be much better off than I would have been.

Now let me go lick my wounds and see if there is not a way to keep pulling my money out of the market on Tuesdays. Apparently, at least in the stock market, Tuesdays are the new Monday.

Happy hump day.


Ohhh! That was a *horrendous* crash! –The Dukes of Hazzard

On This day in History

Listening to a show I listen to every weekday morning I heard two things of interest that I figured I could remember.

4 years ago today Mr. Rogers died. Now while he was here I was not big into him. While for him it was a Wonderful day in the Neighborhood, for me I just did not understand him. That and I always figured there was no way a person could be like that for real.

Well I was wrong, he was that genuine. I saw a quote of his about his first time seeing TV at his parents house.

"I went into television because I hated it so. And I thought there was some way of using this fabulous instrument to be of nurture to those who would watch and listen."

He spent much of his time making the right choices. He worked for NBC but decided that commercial TV was not where children’s learning programs belonged as it was to reliant on advertisement and merchandising. Eventually he found his way to PBS.

I have a friend that personally knew Mr Rogers online and he was every bit as genuine there as well. The world lost a great man back four years ago today.



Back in 1922 on this very day something important happened. The US Supreme Court upheld the 19th amendment to the constitution guaranteeing Women the right to vote here in the United States. Being born in the late fifties I find this incredible that they had to earn the right to vote. That and also that blacks were ever slaves here in the United States and had even less rights then women but that is something entirely different. So today will come and go and not much will be made of if. I myself would have had no idea if I had not been listening to my morning show as I always do. You have come a long way baby...



Happy Tuesday.


I wouldn't bother visiting the neighborhood of make-believe today Mr. Rogers, I dare say you find it quite in ruins. –Family Guy

Smile

I have had a fascination with cameras since I was a wee little one. I remember my parents getting me a camera when I was fairly young. One of the first things I did got the camera taken away from me for a while. I took several pictures and then opened the back of the camera to play with the film inside. Of course being the smart shit that I was I made sure to do it in shadow since I knew the sunlight would be bad for the film.

Fast forward several years and you see me at my friends wedding of course taking pictures. By then I had a decent Canon film camera and a monster flash. I took pictures over 50 feet away with that flash and had them turn out. Well that worked out well and now here I was taking pictures at my friends wedding. Not professionally but just to have something to give to them as a gift. Well that and the weber grill that we all chipped in on for them.

One thing I managed to capture at the wedding was the bouquet and garter toss. With that fancy flash I was able to take many pictures very rapidly. The first picture was the side of the groom. He was looking ahead getting ready to toss the garter. That was followed by a picture after he tossed the garter with it flying in the air and the bachelors looking at it as it flew their way. Then a picture of them scrambling to come up with the garter and finally a picture of the lucky bachelor triumphantly displaying his trophy. That went pretty wall so I decided to try the same thing for the bride.

A picture of the side of the bride as she was getting ready to toss the bouquet. Another as the bouquet is flying through the air with the bachelorettes intensely focused on the object of their desires. This was followed by the mad dash to snatch up the bouquet and finally a picture of the lovely bachelorette and her prize.

When I took this I had no idea what I was going to do. As things came together I ended up putting together two pages in the wedding album I put together for them. The page on the left was the grooms page, the one on the right was the brides.

The grooms page had the groom on the right side of the page centered half way down the page. On the left side of the page was three pictures. The top was the garter flying, the middle was the scramble for the garter, the bottom was the bachelor and his trophy.

The brides page had the bride on the left side of the page centered half way down the page. On the right side of the page was three pictures. The top was the bouquet flying, the middle was the scramble for the bouquet, the bottom was the bachelorette and her prize.

Perfect except for one thing. When I took the picture I had no idea what I was going to do with it. As a result I was standing on the wrong side of the groom. When I would have liked the groom and bride facing each other instead I had both of them facing the same way. Funny thing is now a days I could have taken care of the with the click of a button and drag down of a menu.

This all occurred back in August of 1980. I have been trying to duplicate that ever since and have never come close. During that time I had the idea of possibly getting into the business of shooting weddings as a side job. I did not know what I was doing but figured I could get some advice from my friend on what to do and what was involved. Well that idea went out the window when I shot pictures at a friends wedding and blew almost 3 rolls of film as I had the shutter speed set wrong and the flash did not sync up. I got some mighty good pictures of everyone’s feet but somehow I did not think anyone would want to see that so I scrapped the pictures and the idea of shooting weddings for a side job. What would I say to a bride if I had ruined the pictures of her special day. How do you do them again.

So I continue to take pictures at the weddings I attend and give the resulting pictures to the bride and groom. It is funny what goes around comes around or is that even appropriate here? My best friends whose wedding I took pictures at back in August of 1980 have their youngest son getting married in June of this year. I, of course, will be taking pictures of the event, unofficially of course. I have been working on getting tools together. I have a Canon Digital Rebel XT and a decent lens. I will be getting another lens to help round out what I need to do things up properly. I wish I had a second digital camera to use for the wedding but by old digital just will not cut it. I have a nice flash to make a lot of the pictures I would like to take possible. I have Photoshop to help me fix the problems I may have in the pictures and to add some sparkle and pizzaz to the pictures I do take and once again I have a chance to attempt the same series of pictures I took at his parents wedding almost 27 years ago. Either way I know I will have a great time taking pictures and being around for the events. Now if only I could get better at taking pictures between now and then. I have several books ... we will see. Wish me luck!


$50? Hey, $20 gets you an apartment! $50 gets you a photographer! A $100 gets you no photographer. –The Drew Carey Show

Saturday's Photo Scavengar Hunt - SOFT

Grab the Scavenger Hunt code.
Photo Theme. Join the blogroll. Visit participants.
This weeks theme is SOFT.

OK, lets give this a try one more time. This week I thought I would take a picture I took in 2003 at an event that is part of the Kentucky Derby Festival of a Mom and her daughter. It is not a perfect picture but it is nice.



Now we all know that babies are SOFT so I suppose you could call this SOFT in its own right but that is not where I am heading. I am reading a book called "The Photoshop CS2 book for Digital Photographers" by my favorite photo retouching author, Scott Kelby. In it one of the techniques that he shows you how to do is turn any photo into a SOFT focus photo. I thought this week I would do that with this picture.

Step one after the open the picture is to copy the photo into another layer. With CS2 you press Ctrl-J but I would imagine you can do the same sort of thing with other programs. Now you apply a blur to that copied layer. In CS2 you select Filter and then Blur and finally Gaussian Blur. For High Res pictures you type 20 pixel. For Lower Res pictures you select between 6 and 10 pixel. This is what you end up with:



Now the final step you need to adjust the opacity of the new layer from 100 percent down to something much lower so the details show through. Scott suggests 50 percent and that is what I did here.



Ah now that is nice as it has added a nice SOFT focus to the picture. And that is my entry for this weeks theme ... SOFT. Oh and sorry for plugging the book and the Author but I thought if I am going to reveal one of his tips then it was the least I could do suppling links to his stuff in case you wanted to check him out.

Thank you very much for visiting. Have a wonderful weekend.

Cold is Cold

After yesterday's post, time for something much more lightly hearted. Let me explain something first. Here in Michigan we have an Upper Peninsula and a Lower Peninsula. The people that live up in Gods Country are referred to as Yoppers. The rest of us that live below the bridge to the UP are called trolls. The temperatures in the UP are much colder then the LP and they get a lot more snow. With that…



60 above zero (16 C)

Arizonians turn on the heat.
People in the U.P. plant gardens.

50 above zero (10 C):
Californians shiver uncontrollably.
People in Munising sunbathe.

40 above zero (4 C):
Italian & English cars won't start.
Yoopers drive with the windows down.

32 above zero (0 C):
Distilled water freezes.
The water in Marquette gets thicker.

20 above zero (-7 C):
Floridians don coats, thermal underwear,
gloves, wool hats. Yoopers throw on a flannel shirt.

15 above zero (-9 C):
New York landlords finally turn up the heat.
Yoopers have the last cookout before
it gets cold.

0 (-18 C)
People in Miami all die.
Yoopers close the windows.

10 below zero (-23 C):
Californians fly away to Mexico.
Yoopers get out their winter coats.

25 below zero (-32 C):
Hollywood disintegrates.
The Girl Scouts in the U.P. are selling cookies door to door.

40 below zero (-40 C):
Washington DC runs out of hot air.
Yoopers let the dogs sleep indoors.

100 below zero (-73 C):
Santa Claus abandons the North Pole.
Yoopers get upset because they can't start the pickup.

460 below zero (-273 C):
ALL atomic motion stops
(absolute zero on the Kelvin scale.)
Yoopers start saying..."Cold 'nuff fer ya?"

500 below zero (-296 C):
Hell freezes over.
Public schools in the U.P. will open 2 hours late.

Note: Celsius added for Canadian and other visitors that do not use Fahrenheit

My Chevy shook a shit! --Escanaba in da Moonlight

The N Word

A few days ago I heard that a local Community College was going to do something for Black History month. They were going to have everyone that wanted to, regardless if they went to the college or not, submit an essay. The topic of the essay was the use of the N word on campus although they did not censor the word when they solicited responses.

Rewind many years ago. I remember seeing an episode of Boston Public, a show about a high school in Boston and they did not hold punches when picking themes. Any the show aired in their second season, I think it was called Chapter 37. Oh and before I go further, this particular episode was the second highest rated espisode of the 5 seasons it was on the air. I am doing this from memory so I hope I get it basically correct. In the episode a few students are arguing about the use of the word. Of course there were both black and white students involved. Well the teacher, Danny, decided that this could not be ignored and he decided to bring it up as a topic of discussion. Basically the discussion was not going very far as a lot of emotions were being interjected and he finally said I want you all to read this book (that he had) and then we will continue the discussion. The book talked about the origin of the word.

In the mean time the teacher got in trouble and was all but told you will stop this now or you will no longer be employed here. Danny was very upset at this as he thought there was nothing wrong with a discussion. Well the next day happened and he tried to steer the class away from what had happened. He was trying to do what he was ordered but surprise the students were more than a little upset. They were all prepared and wanted to discuss the use of the word.

What it all came down to is now that they were educated about the origins of the word some opinions changed but there were still strong feelings about this. A lot of the black students felt that the white students had not earned the right to use the word. Some of the white students still could not understand why it was OK for a black student to call another black student by that word and it was not OK for them to do it when it was meant more as a greeting than something derogatory. In the end I really do not think it solved a lot but I think people at least understood the others point of view even if they disagree with it.

Well I did a little research this week and discovered the word was originally used to describe a black person and not meant to be derogatory at all. Over here in the US the term turned into a derogatory term and still is although, of late it is not as bad as it had been. Other places outside the US it is a mixed bag if this is a bad term or not. What is confusing it however is the way some people use it in talking each other like they were saying homey or something.

I understand how a person can find something offensive from one person and not another. I once worked with one person and I would occasionally but rarely tell a black joke. To me it was no big deal because I knew the joke was stupid anyway just like Polish jokes and Blonde jokes are. Joel did just fine with that and we got along well. Someone else I worked with tried to do the same thing and he just about got his head torn off. The difference being the person telling the joke probably meant what he was saying. There was certainly a perceived difference.

Anyway I do not think I will ever use that word. I dose not have a home in my vocabulary. The strange thing is the one time when I thought about using the word and almost did it was in reference to this someone that was white, not black.

The reason this story hit the news in the first place is the college decided against it and instead would just discuss things. I am glad, I think, it will turn out better in the long run. I know this is not an all warm and cuddly post and if no one comments on it I do not blame you but I thought I would toss it out there.


No, I didn't mean that in a, in a derogatory sense. I got my own problems, really...—Curb Your Enthusiasm

Spring is in the Air

Well actually it has been the last two days, today not so much. Today it is 20 outside here in mid Michigan and we have freezing fog but it will make it into the low 40s. Anyway I know winter is not over. We will see more snow. We may see a lot more snow. We will see more cold. I mean it is only February and winter will still be with us through mid to end of March. Still it felt so good.


For me I saw a cardinal turn up in the tree line in the back of my property and boy was he singing away along with many other birds. The sun was out STRONG. The temperatures were rising. Missing are the spring flowers but they will get here soon enough. By the way, the picture above was found on a WEB site for kids, www.harunyahya.com/kids/pictures.html.

What ever it was it just felt like spring and I am not alone. Yesterday the radio station I was listening to had the very same observation. I have also noticed people blogging from Ohio and Kentucky saying similar thing. So, even though it is still winter, unofficially... Spring is in the Air!

I hope you are enjoying the weather where you are too.


Tra-la-la-la-la. Spring is in the air, and I am a flower with nothing interesting to say. –A Bug’s Life

My Computer has Alzheimer's

Over the last several weeks I have being doing battle with my computer. It pointed at driver problems. It also showed up with major problems with FireFox. Many times when shutting down I would get a blue screen. Well over this weekend it was blue screening in the middle of me using it. I was really starting to hate my computer.

Well I had seen some problems at work lately and when I researched that I saw there was a simple memory test program from Microsoft. So yesterday I downloaded the image. I also had to download a program (Nero 7) to allow me to created a bootable CD from an imagine.

Start the test

FAILED
FAILED
FAILED
FAILED
FEILED
FAILED

It failed ever test. OK, time to get deeper into the problem.

I tested each memory dimm one at a time.

SUCCESFULL
SUCCESFULL
SUCCESFULL
SUCCESFULL
SUCCESFULL
SUCCESFULL

Cool. DIMM 2 also passed with flying colors. DIMM 3 failed all tests and DIMM 4 passed all tests.

So I pulled the 1 gig DIM and so far my machine has been running well ever since. We will see if this really was all it was. I hope so. I really need to be able to count on this old gall here.

Over the weekend I have been working on processing some pictures I took, 174 in all. That and I created a few slides to enhace everything. So I used some programs I have never used before. I got better at other programs. And I also learned there are some things I am lacking in. All in all I used

Adobe Bridge
Adobe Photoshop CS2
Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0
Adobe Reader 7
Corel Photo Album 6
Epson Print CD
Nero 7
Nova Scrapbook Factory Deluxe
Open Office 2.1

The thing that I feel is still lacking, being able to put together a decent page. I put together something about each of the conductors, 1 page for each. I wanted to be able to have a background image. I am so wanted to put a picture on it and to be able to wrap the text around the picture.

Turns out wrapping the text was the killer. Only Open Office allowed the wrapping of text I wanted but I had a hard time getting the background image the way I wanted. Once I got something going in Office I had to figure out how I was going to be able to take the page and save it as JPEG. I believe what I did was export to PDF and then saved the page out to JPEG from there. What a mess and I still did not get what I wanted. I ended up using the scrapbook program but it would not wrap text. I had to fudge it.

Photo Album 6 was cool for what I used it for. Elements, I probably could have done everything in CS2 but I am a little more used to Elements at this point. Photoshop CS2 is wonderful. I touched each and every picture I took with it fixing the color and the sharpness. I got so much better as I went. I am not sure I did as good as I should have but I learned a lot and learned how to get much faster at it. Thank goodness since it is nothing for me to take 200 to 300 pictures at one event.

Now if only I could find something that could do a nice page layout and produce a JPEG or TIFF file or something that I could put onto a CD.

Oh by the way, for one reason or another no Rodeo for me over the weekend.

P.S. I just discovered something. When I typed this outside of Blogger and then pasted it into blogger all my sentences ran together. Now I see what everyone is talking about. So I tried something. I clicked the Edit HTML tab and then I pasted into the window. Then I clicked the Compose tab. Guess what... it so worked. So if you are running into this try the Edit HTML tab and see if it works for you. Good luck.


Hmm... You have bad memory. --C.R.A.Z.Y.

Fat Tuesday and Beyond

Well it is that time of year again. First Fat Tuesday which means a little excess. This includes most likely a steak somewhere, at least 1 packzi, maybe 2, and I am sure I will find something else to go with it. By the way, for those unfamilure with packzi, it is a Polish/Catholic tradition. If you follow the line above it will take you to a real short article that also has a link. This is an audio recorded at a local bakery that is well known for their packzi even though they are an Italian backery.

Fat Tuesday is followed by Ash Wednesday, the start of lent. I have strayed off of trying to lose weight and get in shape so that will be part of what I do for lent this year. So my side guy should start getting active again.

Well I think it is time to go enjoy the day a little. I just saw a Cardinal. I have not seen one of those in a little while. That and I am hearing some song birds out there. It looks like it is only 17 F out there right now but, I can't believe it, it is suppose to make it above freezing for the first time in about 3 weeks. Even then it was only above freezing one day. Time to wash the car. Have a great day everyone.


Sister Hill? I really like going to church. Does that mean I can give it up for Lent? --King of the Hill

Saturday's Photo Scavengar Hunt - ANTIQUE

Grab the Scavenger Hunt code.
Photo Theme. Join the blogroll. Visit participants.
This weeks theme is ANTIQUE.

Well time to cheat a little on this one. I have some things that are older but I do not think I have anything that is ANTIQUE. Now I suppose I could turn the camera around and take a picture of me. I mean I am going to be 50 later this year and from what I read on the WEB they are starting to consider things that are 50 years old an ANTIQUE. Sorry, could not do it.

I also posted that 1980's car bag phone. Now age wise that the phone is not ANTIQUE but you have to admit it, yes that would qualify. But I already posted this before for the hunt so scratch that one.

While I was doing my research on the WEB I found this preview of an O'Reilly Safari book - Adobe® Photoshop® Elements 4: 50 Ways to Create Cool Pictures. The preview shows you how to use Adobe Photoshop to create an ANTIQUE affect on a photo you may have. So for this weeks hunt entry I will be ANTIQUING a photo before your very eyes.

Lets start with this picture I took 3 years ago.



Now play with the Hue/Saturation numbers per the article and you end up with this. I believe what you are doing here is kind of fading the color and provide that kind of yellowish tint that an ANTIQUE picture typically has.



And now do the last step and you have this. This seems to kind of add a lot of grain to the picture to kind of make it look like it has deteriorated some.



Sorry for the cheat but this is a picture I took and it truly does look ANTIQUE. Imagine what you could do with a picture that looks like it could actually be ANTIQUE to begin with. I hope you find this interesting and something you may find useful in the future. I think I will have to check into this book to see if they have the updated version 5 book or if the version 4 book is still available. I wonder what other cool things they have to share?


Thank you very much for visiting. Have a wonderful weekend.

Now I are All Cultured

Continuing on my week of culture yesterday I attended the local Youth Symphony. SignGurl's oldest daughter play with the group. I tell you most of them are high school age, some are a little younger but they play better than any high school group I have ever seen. As a matter of fact I think I would rather see them then or local Symphony Orchestra.

Now that is not fair because I have never seen the professional group before. I am just going on the last time when I say a play by one of the professional groups in the area. Expectations were high and I ended up dissapointed. Yet when I go to any of a number of community groups I always walk away very happy. I guess again it is expectations. I expect to have a pleasant evening but I do not expect perfection. If I expected perfection maybe I would be dissapointed than too.

Anyway to show how much I enjoy them, I am not a string person. I was in band for 4 1/2 years. I am used to woodwind, brass, and percussion. I played the french horn and as a result I fell in love with the instrument. Not the way I played it but the way the instrument sounded in general. I also loved the Bassoon and the oboe. I think part of the reason is they are both hard instruments to play. If you do not know what you are doing they sound terrible. Otherwise they are simply beautiful. Anyway last night my second favorite song of the night was called Heilium. Heilium is performed by strings only. I think I have come a long ways and I think they have really helped me out with that. I think I heard maybe 2 or 3 little opps moments last night. I am talking little two and I think that is fantastic.

Anyway so as to balance myself out, I think I will be going to see a rodeo this weekend. It has been years since I have done that. I have always enjoyed it especially when they drag out "God Bless the USA" or "Mama's Don't Let Your Babies Grow up to be Cowboys". I love those songs.

Yea haw!

Edit: By the way, the Rodeo is MSU Spartan Stampede. The link has a few pictures and info about the Rodeo.

Rodeo Announcer: [voiceover] The pen is open and that's a mean-looking bronc. Our next contender is Miss Doralee Rhodes. Let's see how long it takes her to hogtie this sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot. Whoa. She's already got him. And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen, five seconds for Miss Doralee Rhodes. --Nine to Five

No Brakes

On the way into work this morning I discoevered I had No Breaks. I was coming up on the light near my house and it was red. So, like I normally do, long before the time I need to stop, I applied the breaks.

BRAKES

The idiot Break light went on, the peddle just about hit the ground and I was hardley stopping. Now since I has a ways to stop I was able to get stopped. I pulled a U turn and headed home for the other vehicle that I bought last spring. Thank goodness for that. Of course it was full of ice since I had not driven it in a while but that is OK. So now I am going to try and get the car I normally drive into a brake shop on Monday and see what happens.

Hope your Thursday is going better. All things considered, I guess mine is going pretty good. It sure could have been worse.

Don't use the brakes. Cars are made to go, not to stop! --A bout de souffle

Happy Valentines Day

In It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown (Amazon) (IMDB) not only do we get to see the Little Red Haired girl but Chuck, that sly devil, gets to kiss her as seen here.


Unfortunately, Charles Schulz never recognized this as canon so it never really happened. Poor old Charlie Brown.

Happy Valentines Day to you oh and take a rose or three on your way out if you would like.


A movie! That's your problem! You don't want to be in love. You want to be in love in a movie. --Sleepless in Seattle

Snow Day

You would have thought the end of the world was on its way even as late as yesterday. They had winter storm warnings in place for us and were only predicting between 3 to 6 inches of snow. That is it, 6 inches max with no ice or anything. They are predicting blowing winds which could be much worse with lose snow being blown around but ... THIS IS MICHIGAN. We get snow. Big deal.

Yesterday we saw probably between 1 to 1 1/2 inches, probably a lot from drifting. Even if you add that in and now add the new totals they are talking about that will only set you back ... cha ching ... 3 to 6 inches. So I might only see another 2 inches of snow over the course of two days.

Why oh why do the weather forecasters do it. Why do the predict the way they do. And why aren't they more accurate. I think if I were off as much as them I would have lost my jobs ages ago. Anyway I am not complaining. I mean Michigan can handle the snow but it does not mean we want to handle the snow.

I hope the weather in your neck of the woods is cooperating. Oh Suze, should I send some of our snow your way? I wonder if it is to late to move south? I see Kentucky is only expecting rain. Who knows what further south will see.


Yeah, you know something... Vermont should be beautiful this time of year, with all that snow. --White Christmas

A Child's View on Politics.....

With the couple of email comments over the weekend of me becoming Governor, a post I am not so sure of might I add, I thought this was appropriate...


A little boy goes to his dad and asks, "What are Politics?"

Dad says, "Well son, let me try to explain it this way:

#1. I'm the head of the family, so call me The President.
#2. Your mother is the administrator of the money, so we call her the Government.
#3. We're here to take care of your needs, so we'll call you the People.
#4. The nanny, we'll consider her the Working Class.
#5. And your baby brother, we'll call him the Future.

"Now, think about that and see if it makes sense."

So, the little boy goes off to bed thinking about what Dad has said.

Later that night, he hears his baby brother crying, so he gets up to check on him. He finds that the baby has severely soiled his diaper.

So, the little boy goes to his parent's room and finds his mother sound asleep. Not wanting to wake her, he goes to the nanny's room. Finding the door locked, He looks in the peephole and finds his father in bed with the Nanny.

He gives up and goes back to bed.

The next morning, the little boy says to his father, "Dad, I think I understand the concept of politics now."

The father says, "Good, son, tell me in your own words what you think politics is all about."

The little boy replies, "The President is screwing the Working Class, while the Government is
sound asleep. The People are being ignored and the Future is in deep sh!t."


No, it's not smart. It's politics. --Battlestar Galactica

Saturday's Photo Scavengar Hunt - BROKEN

Grab the Scavenger Hunt code.
Photo Theme. Join the blogroll. Visit participants.
This weeks theme is BROKEN.

I looked every where and I can not find it. A few weeks ago I took a bunch of pictures of my niece and her team playing basketball. At it I took notice of something and decided to take pictures of it. It showed a list of athlete names, event and record that they set. I remember that from back in high school. Your name appears on the wall until such time as your record is BROKEN. Then the new name is posted there and so on, and so on.

Now here it the thing. I can not find those discs. I was going to call up the brother in law that I know has a copy of it but he is in pain trying to pass a kidney stone. Somehow I just do not think I can bother him now. So we will have to do with something from last weekend. It only shows the years that their various teams BROKE everyones record and became the best team for that year. This really is not what I wanted to post but I will just have to be lame this time.



Thank you very much for visiting. Have a wonderful weekend.

Does Anybody Really Know What Day it is?

As I was walking down the street one day
A man came up to me and asked me what the time was that was on my watch, yeah
And I said

Does anybody really know what time it is
Does anybody really care
If so I cant imagine why
Weve all got time enough to cry

And I was walking down the street one day
A pretty lady looked at me and said her diamond watch had stopped cold dead
And I said

Does anybody really know what time it is
Does anybody really care
If so I cant imagine why
Weve all got time enough to cry

And I was walking down the street one day
Being pushed and shoved by people trying to beat the clock, oh, no I just dont know
I dont know
And I said, yes I said

Background:
People runnin everywhere
Dont know where to go
Dont know where I am
Cant see past the next step
Dont have time to think past the last mile
Have no time to look around
Just run around, run around and think why

Does anybody really know what time it is
Does anybody really care
If so I cant imagine why
Weve all got time enough to die

Yesterday long about 7:00 am I suddenly became aware of the time. You see trash pickup in this neck of the woods is any time after 7:00 am although more typically it is around 7:10 to 7:15. It used to be after 1:00 in the afternoon but no, that had to change it.

I made a mad dash to gather things up and get the trash out. In the end I got the trash out by 7:12 but I knew nothing had come through since 7:10 so I was thinking I was in good shape as I walked back into the house.

Time passed and I headed into work but I noticed the trash had not been picked up. I do silly little things like always make sure the lid is fastened down on the trash. Once they come it is no longer fastened down. Anyway I was disappointed I had missed the pickup but I will live as I really do not have all that much trash and it is cold so I do not need to worry about it stinking while I wait for pickup next week. Still I was noticing something odd but it just was not clicking.

Actually things did not click until this morning when I woke up. What I was noticing was that no one had put out their trash. Now I know people do not always put stuff out every week but this was just plain weird. What clicked this morning was today was Thursday. Thursday is my trash pick up day, not Wednesday. It always has been since I moved in here almost 8 years ago. That is it, I am losing my mind.

Fast forward an hour. I am playing around on the Internet looking to see what I have missed and I check the time. It is 7:10 and I have not put the trash back out at the curb. Deja vu all over again. Now I was going to miss putting the trash out for real. Good news I was a little late but a few minutes ago as I was typing this I could hear them picking up the trash.

Simple things for simple minds I guess but I must admit I am bothered that I got this so wrong. How could I forget something as simple as when trash pickup day was? Oh well, I will survive.

Happy trash day or is that Happy Half Nekkid Thursday? Oh and by the way, the Chicago reference above... I just love Chicago and I guess if you substitute date for time it sort of fits.



Do you know what time it is? --Aqua Teen Hunger Force

Happy Tuesday

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My niece did well with basketball. She did better on Sunday but then the girls basketball program at that school is just starting there and they are not that good yet. The game on Saturday was a toughy but it always is. Last year it came down to these two teams playing in a playoff and it looks like that will happen again. It also is looking like my nieces team will be undefeated for the second year in a row. I may learn to love basketball yet. We did find out something interesting. The team they most likely will be playing for all the marbles will be no more after this year as the school is closing. That is a shame, you play better when you play tough opponents.

I am plugging away with Photoshop. I have a wedding I took a lot of pictures of last July and I am using Photoshop to color correct and lighten the pictures. Most of the pictures are fairly under exposed so there is a little work. This is just giving me more incentive to shoot the pictures right the first time. Hopefully the flash I got for Christmas will go a long way to help properly expose the pictures.

Our Governor is doing the State of the State tonight. I am curious how she is going to make things positive as things seem to be going poorly in Michigan. I suppose I will need to tune in tonight and see.

My house hates the cold. Yes I said my house hates it. At night when it is getting its coldest I hear these loud bang noises. Not a lot but some of them. I suspect what it is is when it gets below zero things are contracting enough that when it is able to move a little it suddenly moves and I hear the bang noise. I hope I have a house left after this cold snap happens. I am use to the noise the siding makes when it gets warm and even when it cools down to a lesser extent but I do not think that is what this noise is. I miss having a brick house. Should I move that will be on the top of my list of things to look for.

Time to get into work. I fell cold already thinking about the drive into work. It is below zero as I type. Yikes.


Was what a creak? --Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman

Pass the Bowl

I decided to watch Super Bowl for a change. I tuned in about 6:26 and could not believe there were points on the board. I heard the kickoff was at 6:25. It turns out it was and the scoring was just that fast. Amazing.

Well the game was decent. It seems like the last several years the game was not worth watching. Congratulations go out to Indianapolis. The half time show was nice. Although I am no Prince fan I thought he did a very good job especially in all that rain. Oh in honor of Prince we of course had to color the post Purple! The coaches were great. That leaves us with one thing.

I always think of the Super Bowl commercials as killer. The last few years I would have to say they did not deliver, at least for me. This year was better. I really liked several of the Budwiser adds. Sorry, I must be a pig as I smiled about the Go Daddy add. Speaking of which I also enjoyed the Diabetes gal in the heart add. She looked hot in that tight outfit. The commercial over all was OK but when you consider that was a fan commercial (I believe) I will give it a little more credit. After all it made me bring it up. Of course the whole point was to push the website and I do not remember the website to check up on you heart risks so maybe it was just so so. But I so loved the outfit.

Well I am back off to bed to catch a little sleep. Going outside and doing the snow when I returned home was not good for my health but it needed to be done. Maybe an extra hour or two will help. Then again maybe I should take the whole day off.


Cancel the Super Bowl? That's like canceling Christmas! --Black Sunday

Saturday's Photo Scavengar Hunt - GROSS

Grab the Scavenger Hunt code.
Photo Theme. Join the blogroll. Visit participants.
This weeks theme is GROSS.

First lets look up one of the definitions of GROSS.

pl. gross. (Abbr. gr. or gro.) A group of 144 items; 12 dozen.

Here we have a GROSS of toothpicks.




Thank you very much for visiting. Have a wonderful weekend.

Brown

The color for today is BROWN in honor of the Ground Hog, Punxsutawney Phil. In case you did not hear the groundhog at Gobblers Knob did not see his shadow and that means spring will come early this year. Good news, we have a local critter, a woodchuck called Woody, and she did not see her shadow either. She is a better predictor than Phil anyway but this time they both agree. We should have a shortened winter. Yea.

Now go turn on the Comedy Network and go watch Groundhog Day. OK, so it is not that great of movie but I like it. Just like Belly Button Man and Belly Button woman on Roxie's.

Oh, one final note. Who came up with the name in Pennsylvania that Phil is at. Gobblers Knob? Somehow that either sounds dirty or it sounds like something a group of people came up with at the bar some long night.

"What do we call that park?"

"I don't know, how about Gobblers Knob?"

*the bar breaks out in loud uncontroled laughter*

Grey

The color for the day would be GREY. Why is that? Well I had things I wanted to get done but never did. What I did do was download a game called Shape Shifter. I am so terrible at the game but it ate up a large part of my evening. So GREY for not really accomplishing anthing today.