Sunday, December 31, 2006
"It's a direct line to God and it's cheaper than any phone call."
FYI: God wants to see some green. "A suggested donation of $160-$500 will enroll you in the "Adopt a Sister" program for 1 year." I don't know about you but my phone calls (except to that "special" number) cost a good bit less.
Posted 5:49 PM by whatley (0) comments
Comments:
New Year's Eve: Where auld acquaintance be forgot. Unless, of course, those tests come back positive. ~Jay Leno
New Year's Day: Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. ~Mark Twain
Posted 2:50 PM by whatley (3) comments
Comments:
Post a Comment- New year? Drop the Walleye! Go to Port Clinton tonight and see the fish fly!
Saturday, December 30, 2006
To answer all of the questions, Yes! There IS a vegetarian Haggis! Many Haggis recipes abound. The link shows recipes, as they say, "sorted in order of increasing use of animal parts that would normally be thrown away." The vegetarian Haggis is at the bottom of the list. And we all know what THAT means.
Posted 5:15 PM by Andy (3) comments
Comments:
- And when you eat your Haggis (yes, it is a comestible, at least to Scotsmen) on Robert Burn's day (january 25), what do you say? Now stop that! That's rude! You clean that up right now! Actually you quote Robert Burns "To a Haggis."
Post a Comment- There is no reason to eat haggis and there is no "vegetarian" haggis since it requires the use of a sheeps stomach for the casing. There being no point to an actual haggis in these modern times when edible food is readily available there is really no reason for a vegetable based simulacrum. It rates right up there with non-alcoholic vodka.
Friday, December 29, 2006
The "New" Blogger. Doesn't look all that new to me but hey, what do I know. Anyway.... I went ahead and switched a few minutes ago and during the process I noticed this:
"Other authors will be invited to move their accounts to the new Blogger when they sign in. They must use the new Blogger in order to post to these blogs."I guess that, because I'm the registered owner of tRBT, I may have inadvertently moved it into a new Google space (Google bought Blogger a year or two ago) that will require anyone wanting to post to also switch. Oops. Oh well. Matter of time. I'm sure they'll drop the old interface/sign in sooner or later anyway.
Posted 4:01 PM by whatley (5) comments
Comments:
- Here's a fuller description:
What happens when team blogs switch to the new version of Blogger?
A team blog will only switch to the new version of Blogger when the original owner moves his or her account over.
Team members who have not yet switched to the new version will still see the blog on their dashboards, but it will be grayed out and inaccessible. Once those members move their own accounts to the new version of Blogger, they will be able to access the blog as before. If they can't yet switch, or don't wish to, they can ask the owner of the blog for a new invitation to join the blog on the new version. They can then accept that invitation by logging in to or creating a Google Account to post to that blog. (Later on, when they do switch their Blogger account to the new version, they'll have an option to merge it with this account.)
If a team member of a blog switches their account to the new version of Blogger before the blog owner does, then the team blog is not converted. It will appear on the team member's converted dashboard, but clicking on it will lead back to the old version of Blogger. Thus, the blog will still be usable, but without the new features of Blogger (e.g. Labels, Layouts, etc.).
- Cannot edit posts! It shows them, but does not let the author make any changes! Also requires a long and clumsy email address for account login. Boo! Hiss!
- I agree, the login is clumsy. They do that to maintain compatibility with other Google services.
You say you can't edit your own posts? Please fool with that a bit to be sure.
- Nope. Cannot edit any post before today. Also, everything is taking twice to three times as long to appear. When I clicked "Post a comment" just now, it never came up (5 minute wait). I had to close it and try again and still wait. The Blogger window takes a lot longer to initialize after I log in using the new path. Degradation of service it seems to me. Too big, too many users. Whaddya expect for free, a rrrrubber biscuit?
Post a Comment- Bummer. I'm not experiencing the delay problems you are, at least not yet. Let's let it simmer for a while.
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
I heard an acoustic guitar duo on Mountainstage (a West Virginia live/radio program) streamed through WUMB Folk Radio tonight. They are Rodrigo y Gabriella. They met as teens in Mexico where they were in a Thrash Metal band. Now they are from Dublin, Ireland, first by way of Dublin in 1999, then Copenhagen where they busked on the street in sub-zero weather to stay alive, then Barcelona and back to Dublin. They appeared on David Letterman and released an album titled "Rodrigo y Gabriela" in October '06. Be sure to keep your mouth closed as you listen to them, so you don't drool down the front of your shirt.
Posted 10:36 PM by Andy (1) comments
Comments:
Post a Comment- I meant to comment right after watching the "Letterman" link but got busy with something else and forgot. Anyway... nice! I enjoyed that. These guys were in a "thrash metal band"? WTF's a "thrash metal band"? No, don't tell me. I'm better off without knowing.
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Russ - two things about the RBT.
1) I posted a comment on your Friday, December 8 entry. When I click the "Post a Comments" link, my Dec 23 note shows up, but it has not appeared on the RBT page under the comments drop down.
2) The "Old" versus the "New" Blogger login - the Blogger login page notes that they are transitioning to the New Blogger, and that we will have to sign in with our Google account. Do we need to all do this simultaneously so we don't lose access?
Posted 9:38 AM by Andy (2) comments
Comments:
Post a Comment- I see a Dec. 23rd comment in the drop down. I've had the same thing happen to my comments once or twice. It's a Blogger thing (nothing I can do about it) and usually straightens out after a while.
"Old" and "New" Blogger both have access to tRBT. I haven't signed up for the new one myself yet. I imagine they'll drop the old one eventually.
Friday, December 22, 2006
ANCIENT GREECE: The winter solstice ritual was called Lenaea, the Festival of the Wild Women. In very ancient times, a man representing the harvest god Dionysos was torn to pieces and eaten by a gang of women on this day. Later in the ritual, Dionysos would be reborn as a baby. By classical times, the human sacrifice had been replaced by the killing of a goat. The women's role had changed to that of funeral mourners and observers of the birth.
And that's what it is all about - sharing food that we brought into the world or made by our own selves. I am sorry, but the thought of grazing at a commercial groaning board to revere the solstice and each other leaves me with an unfullfilled hollow in the center.
And so, I'm offering this simple phrase, for kids from...wait...wrong holiday.
And so, I am offering this Anti-Solstice-Social (or Anti-Social-Solstice, if you prefer). Totally anarchtic. Totally unorganized. Totally free form. On occasional Fridays for the past lifetime or two, a bunch of my OTHER friends (yes, there are some) have fallen together to argue and eat and be hysterical . Since Solstice and Friday coincide this year, we have all been invited to Byron and Alice's house to share the darkness and banish misfortune. Byron just left his job, too, and would be happy to be histronic and random among the odd and polyglot.
Bring a something. Beer. Pepper poppers. Chateaubriand. Ice cream. Toys and gadgets. Exploding cigars. Utopian schemes. Perpetual energy. Instruments of musical destruction. Or the odd road kill ("From your grill, to ours!").
Call me to talk you in. I think this will be the non-commercial, non-organized, non-compos-mentis event that certifies our right to exist. Tell 'em Andy sent you, then duck.
Posted 8:53 AM by Andy (2) comments
Comments:
- Polydor Virgil, an early British Christian, said "Dancing, masques, mummeries, stageplays, and other such Christmas disorders now in use with Christians, were derived from these Roman Saturnalian and Bacchanalian festivals; which should cause all pious Christians eternally to abominate them."
So this is more than enough reason for us to revel in them after all. Sally, Ray - Haven't heard from you in a while. Come on down!
Post a Comment- Well, we can start the new year now. We were successful in getting the earth to tilt back on its axis once again. Life consists of a tug of war between the Northern attractors and the Southern attractors. We haul on the rope in December to yank the sun back up here, and our opposites strain in June to move it back South of the equator. And the US Gummint is planning a permanent base on the moon by 2030, at the lunar North Pole. Santa is emigrating. Elves in space. Can flying reindeer reach escape velocity?
Nobody else showed up at Byron and Alice's. They were disappointed, having wanted some new blood, I mean to meet new friends.
Betsy and I stopped in N. Ridgebill at 5:30 to say hi to Tim. We came back at 9:30 to see Carol, Katko, Clayton, Jim F., Linda W, Marge, Ray and Alice, John's sister Eleanor, and a cast of thousands (well, dozens. OK, tens). Russ and Ralph had been and gone before we returned. Sally was occupied with a houseful of guests and sent solstice greetings in absentia.
Poor Richard's Pub is the first floor of a house opened up to accommodate pews and chairs set around tables for dining. The Smokin' Fez Monkeys include a stand-up bassist, a guitarist/vocalist, bantar/kazoo/jug/noises (Tim), a fiddler and a percussionist. They play a mix of humorous. traditional and original stuff.
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
EMORDNILAP!
Posted 6:14 PM by Andy (2) comments
Comments:
Post a Comment- In case you haven't seen it in a while - here's the original of Subterranean Homesick Blues for comparison. The original video takes place in an alley behind the Savoy Hotel in London where poet Allen Ginsberg and guitarist Robbie Robertson make a cameo.
Monday, December 18, 2006
And now we must face the war on Christmas.
Posted 12:34 PM by Andy (1) comments
Comments:
Post a Comment- Also from Mark Day Comedy, a new and exciting franchise opportunity, Burger King of the Jews.
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Winter Solstice 2006: Spaghetti monsters flying, Fez monkeys smokin. I dunno. Tell ya the truth, I'm startin' to get kinda freaked.
Posted 5:11 PM by whatley (1) comments
Comments:
Friday, December 15, 2006
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Here, for your holiday perusal, is the Iraq Study Group Report, all 160 pages. I haven't read through it yet either, but given the overburden of histronics on the topic, a formal analysis (even an administration one) won't hurt, much. Iraq Study Group members: Chairs are James A. Baker, III and Lee H. Hamilton. Authors are Lawrence S. Eagleburger, Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., Edwin Meese, III, Sandra Day O'Connor, Leon E. Panetta, William J. Perry, Charles S. Robb, and Alan K. Simpson.
Posted 9:07 AM by Andy (3) comments
Comments:
- "Will Bush acknowledge this new reality? Or might he become a Captain Queeg-like character, isolated in his adherence to a discredited and failing policy of muddling through?" Baker Report Puts Bush in a Corner, from The Nation.
Post a Comment- Now what is needed is something like the Pentagon Papers or an Iraq-Contrarian figure like Ollie North caught shredding something.
Friday, December 08, 2006
My unemployment runs out at the end of this month. It was starting to look like I'd have to (shudder) actually get a job. But no! After several weeks of jumping through hoops too numerous to count I've been accepted into a state grant program that will pay (well, mostly pay) for a six month IT FastTrack program at LCCC. Successful completion will result in MCSA certification, a very cool thing to have. But wait! There's more! After that full time six month program they're also picking up the tab for four more on line courses which, after passing the exams, will give me an MCSE, the top MicroSoft certification and a very very cool thing. I think what finally iced all this was my telling them that I knew Ralph and, if I asked him real nice, he'd stop buying lottery tickets. They did the math and realized that, even with giving me the grant, as long as Ralph keeps buying those scratch-offs they'll come out ahead. Thanks pal!
Posted 6:28 AM by whatley (4) comments
Comments:
- Good work! I have spoken to the folks about the same program. Let's see if there's room for both of us in one rowboat.
Post a Comment- Alms indeed. Got a call yesterday that my funding has been approved as well. Life is good. Studenthood at mach 3, here we come!
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Solstice News: Some details seem to have been firmed up regarding solstice at Poor Richard's Tavern. They're advertising it in their December newsletter here (note: a high dpi graphic). In short; it's December 22nd, $10.00 cover for a dinner buffet that starts at 6:00pm, Fez Monkeys (Smokin ones no less) go on at 8:00pm, door prizes(?) will be given away all evening. This gala event is open, and advertised, to the general public so reservations are being recommended.
Posted 9:04 AM by whatley (5) comments
Comments:
- I didn't want to put this in the post but the way they're advertising it as "their" winter solstice party kind of rubbed me the wrong way somehow. And wouldn't it be weird if some of us didn't get a reservation in soon enough and got turned away? I know. Bitch, bitch, bitch.
Post a Comment- We must be getting old and decrepit if we need a commercially catered solstice. Delegate religion, delegate responsibility, delegate recreation. Kind of like hiring Halliburton to build Stonehenge, eh?
Monday, December 04, 2006
Lessee... stockings by chimney with care, sugar plums, tree, wrap stuff... only thing left to do is send my Christmas letter to Christopher Walken. And plan ahead to 2008.
Posted 4:20 PM by Andy (1) comments
Comments:
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Another victory in the War on Drugs. You do remember the war on drugs don't you?
And should you be wondering here's what ICE is. Sort of. They don't have to tell us really. Your tax dollars at work mookie.
Posted 4:47 PM by whatley (1) comments
Comments:
Post a Comment- Where do we start? How do we regain control without becoming like the mistaken and half-blind thugs that run the joint? Voting doesn't seem to be enough since that very process has been hijacked and bypassed by the electoral machinery. Have we ever had control?
Department of Homeland Security got you down? Here, play some Pong, the first video game, from a different perspective.
Posted 4:22 PM by whatley (1) comments
Comments:
Post a Comment- That's interesting. It took me a couple of levels to be able to visualize the opponent. The ball is extremely live and will curve wildly off the surface of the paddle. Nice touch that you can get it past the opponent to score.
Saturday, December 02, 2006
Women: Know Your Limits. A Public Service Announcement.
P.S. I see this post has been automatically signed with the name "whatley". That must be the owner of this here computer. Don't blame "whatley" for this post. I just broke in to his (or her) house, saw this computer, noticed a blogger link and, uh..., posted away, so it's not his (or her) fault. Yeah, that's the ticket.
Posted 5:36 PM by whatley (9) comments
Comments:
- P.P.S. Jesus, the stench. Tell him (or her) to clean the place up once in a while. Doin' a few dishes never killed anybody. Cute dog though. Here puppy... no.... no no no... bad dog... bad dog ... aaaaaaaaa
- Hey Russ! Some raving misogynist broke into your house and got eaten by your dog! Is your dog all right?
- You will just have to cut and paste this link. After all, I am a women who should not have access to technology. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6kNzIcBRm0&mode=related&search=
- Has anyone else noticed that nearly all the receipents of the "Darwin Awards" seem to share a particular gene configuration? Could it be all that 'even distributed' information leads to _________ (fill in the blank)?
- Sorry about that Y chromosome. Might have been an intact X if you had not broken it skateboarding down the turnpike hitched to the bumper of your cousin's pickup.
My best to your lovely and talented wife.
Post a Comment- Perhaps there are too many bulls loose in the paddock? Head-butting seems to be a gender-based occupational hazard toward population control. And while the snorting behemouths are distracted in titanic confrontation, some large-craniumed variant slips amidst the harem.
The National Weather Service is much improved online. Their web site has an amazing amount of information graphically presented, using maps and colors. For example, go to the NOAA National Weather Service home page to see a national map coding alerts and warnings. Click on the map for your location (ie: Northern Ohio) to zoom in to your area. Then click on the area you want to see (ie: Elyria) to get the bird's-eye lowdown on conditions and forecasts. All the little charts inside that page also expand to show details of radar, snow cover, rainfall amounts, wind direction and speed, wave heights, temperatures, humidy, "feels like" temperatures, cloud cover and more.
Check out the area at the bottom left titled "National Digital Forecast Database". Click one. The "graphical forecast" appears. Now move the mouse pointer over any box in the table to the left of the map picture. If you leave the pointer there for a few seconds, the map changes to show the data from the table. If you scroll over the map, it pops up forecasts for the reporting stations. The table also has buttons to choose forward or backward in time by 12-hour increments. It clearly and quickly shows a whole bunch of information.
To an information junkie like me, this is a good example of your tax dollars at work. I have the site bookmarked for quick reference.
Posted 10:35 AM by Andy (0) comments
Comments:
Friday, December 01, 2006
Welcome to December. It is predicted that high temps will be in the low 30's all next week, and snow and ice will begin today. It is my fault. I was scrubbing screens and washing windows outdoors for the last couple of days. Well, it WAS 65 degrees and sunny. My next-door neighbor took me to task for doing "spring work" in November and sure enough, the weather gods objected. I finished working at about 1PM on Thursday. The rain begannfalling at 2PM and hasn't let up yet. Temperatures dropped 20 degrees in two hours, and my back yard is looking lake-like. Glad I put in a yard drain all those years ago; my feet should stay dry. I will let you know if boats start towing cars down the street.
My next-door neighbor has, over the years, populated his yard with an ever-increasing collection of Christmas decorations. Each evening they all spring to life as if commanded by a zombie master. Rising slowly from the ground like reincarnated corpses are Santa Claus, Frosty the Snowman, a polar bear atop his igloo, and a construction shaped like a merry-go-round with figures revolving around and around behind a plastic window. A double line of wicker reindeer with bobbing heads and white light bulbs lead an illuminated sleigh next to a mangy miniature manger and eight tiny wise men. The hum of blowers accompanies these overinflated expectations of the season. And, like retailers' expectations, they go dark and collapse to limp plastic lumps late at night.
The spookiest thing is the music. At all hours of the day or night, badly arranged Christmas music arose from his yard, synthesized, tinny and distorted. I could hear it in my house, through closed windows and even over my radio. Repeatedly I went outside to track it, but each time I headed for his yard, the music stopped. Today, I happened to be outside washing windows when a scratchy "Angels we have heard get high" blared out. After a short stalk, at the front of the limp and deflated Christmas-go-round, I found a zippered pocket. Inside that pocket is a plastic bag. Inside that plastic bag, is a black plastic box haunted by the spirit of electronic Xmas Muzak. On it there is a knob. I turned the knob, and everything went silent night, holy night. Guerilla action for the holidays. Hooray!
Posted 12:30 AM by Andy (0) comments
Comments:
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