Synapses Gapses

Certainly been some interesting things in the news here lately.  Floods, bombs, and lots o’ oil just to name a few.  Would it surprise you to find out have some thoughts on them?  Didn’t think so.  By the way, tonight’s music has nothing to do with the content.  Just what I felt like playing.  If you’re ready, here we go:

• Up to 95 followers on Twitter now.  Hoping to be up to 100 sometime soon.  Got my first celebrity tweetback last night.  Sent Kelsey Grammer a tweet about how much the Mrs and I love Frasier.  He tweeted back “Thank you.”  Have noticed he’s pretty good about responding to people, but wasn’t expecting a reply from him myself.  Yes, short and sweet but still purty cool to me.  Am glad made the decision to join Twitter.  Have “met” interesting people from all around the world.  Been a lot of fun and informative all at the same time.  Several friends speak different languages about half the time.  (@GadgetClo – Spanish; @ingek73 – Dutch, I think)  Really enjoy them when they speak English.  Someday will have to learn how to read their languages cuz sure whatever they are saying in it is interesting, too.  If you follow me on Twitter, thanks for the follow!;
• Speaking of different languages, one of the things which has intrigued me the most about Twitter is seeing how different American English is from British English.  There’s been several times I’ve had to either ask what something meant or looked it up on Google or Bing.  For instance, yesterday was some sort of holiday so lots of folks were off work.  Several people were talking about going to car boot sales.  My first thought was a lot of people sure need tires over there.  Turned out they are similar to flea markets and/or garage sales over here in the States.  In Britain, a car boot is the trunk so a car boot sale is someone selling stuff out of the trunk of their car.  Have seen several people use the term “knackered,” too.  Think it means “tired,” but I’m not completely sure about that.  Thus endeth the lesson.  Amazing how we use the same words but speak such a different language all at the same time;
• Been watching the big oil slick out in the Gulf, especially since used to live that way.  Before all this is over, there will be plenty of lawsuits.  Heard the sharks, er, lawyers are already circling around all along the coast.  Within a couple of days, there were already about 10 suits seeking class-action status.  Only in America.  Saw a quote where the BP chairman said there will be lots of fraudulent claims filed since this is America.  Sad statement cuz it’s true.  Seems like BP is trying to do the right thing.  Have seen some folks complaining about how slow our gov’t has been to react to it.  Not really sure what they could have done differently at this point.  But sure we’ll find out soon enough.  Hope it gets contained quickly;
• Got a big election coming up in Britain on Thursday.  Will be interested to see who wins and how it ultimately affects the US.  Not really sure who I should be rooting for.  My Twitter friends from over there have made compelling cases for two of the candidates.  About the only thing they seem to agree on (I think) is none of them really want Gordon Brown to win. Most of them watched all three debates.  Sad to say, didn’t watch a single one of ours in the last election and can’t remember the last time I did watch one.  Keep hearing something about a hung parliament, but have to admit not really sure what that means.  Think it’s where no party has a clear majority.  As I understand British politics, that will make it difficult to choose the next prime minister.  Could get real interesting to see what happens with one of our strongest (if not THE strongest) allies.   If you’re from Britain, make sure you vote.  As someone told me once, if you don’t vote, you got no right to complain.  Just don’t be like rural Alabamians (and several other Southern states) who vote early and often;
• Gonna be interesting to see who all is involved in the Time Square bomb plot.  Somehow doubt this dude acted alone.  Keep hearing about what a hero the police officer is who recognized what was going on, and rightfully so.  Don’t hear much about the vendor who told him about it, though.  Seems like he should be getting some credit, too.  Anyway, dude almost got away with it(why do I hear “And I would have, too, if it wasn’t for those meddling kids” in my head).  Another 5 minutes and he would have been gone forever.  Now folks are arguing whether it’s the gov’t’s or the airline’s fault he almost got away.  Seems to me like TSA should have known he was on the no-fly list before the airline did and not let his sorry butt through security.  Someone in Customs was supposed to be checking his papers before he got on the plane, weren’t they?  See another long investigation coming on this, too.  How much you wanna bet we don’t find any fault with ourselves?;
• Did you hear about the Philadelphia Phillies fan who got tasered at the game the other night?  Some 17 year-old kid decided it would be a good idea to jump onto the field and run around.  Even asked his dad if it would be OK before he did it.  Supposedly daddy didn’t say yes but didn’t say no, either.  Anywho, while he was running on the field, a police officer pulled out a taser and shot him with it.  Now people are giving the officer a hard time about it.  To me, the idiaht deserved everything he got.  Should have gone up in the stands and got daddy, too, for not at least trying to stop him.  Maybe this will stop others from running out there looking for attention.  Puts a lot of people at risk when dopes run out on the field like that.  Will say it again: idiaht;
• Been watching America: The Story of Us on the History Channel.  Overall, think it’s been pretty good even though they are glossing over a lot of things.  Have noticed a slight liberal twist to most of it.  Bout the only conservative who’s been on there is Newt Gingrich, so far, anyway.  Still, been some interesting things on the show.  Seem to be going out of their way sometimes to talk about the contributions of some folks in our early history you don’t normally hear about.  Has been good to see how much African-Americans contributed to the cause during the American Revolution.  Thought they went a little too far when they talked about Baron Von Stueben having to leave the Prussian army over rumors he was gay.  Not really sure what that had to do with anything other than just to throw it in there.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that.  But, recommend tuning in to it.  Gonna talk about the Civil War this week;
• Know I’ve been pimping the Stanley Cup playoffs in my last couple of blogs, but I’m gonna pimp them some more.  Have been some awesome games this year.  Some of the goalies have been nothing short of spectacular.  Been some real hard hits, too.  There’s nothing in sports like Stanley Cup playoff hockey in my opinion.  You should really check it out.  Who knows, you might love it!!!

Hope you’re having a great week!  Let’s hope they figure out a way to round up all that oil before it destroys too much coastland.

Peace out!