Scot's Ruminations

The Empty Grave That Changed Our World

2011-04-25T22:58:00.000-05:00

Hope everyone had a happy Easter this year. Have said it before and will say it again: Easter is the most important holiday in the life of a Christian. It is what separates us from other religions because our Savior conquered the grave and it is now empty. No other religion can claim that feat. Every religion has a prophet or savior who was born into this world. They also have a body in their grave....except for Christianity.

Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead so that we can eternal life after our time here on Earth is over. Think about it. God loves you so much that He sacrificed His Son so you can have enjoy everlasting life. All He asks for in return is for you to love Him back. There is nothing else we can do to earn this privilege. While we will never love Him as much as He deserves, He will not hold that against us. He will only deny us if we deny Him.

It's not that hard to love God and Jesus. He doesn't even expect you to lead a "perfect" life. So, what are you waiting for?

Vacation Observations

2011-04-07T22:49:00.001-05:00

The family took a vacation recently. Being a trained noticer, saw a few things that interested me along the way.

Yes, we went to Disney again. Took the four night cruise then went to Orlando for a couple days afterwards. Thought I’d write a few of them down to get them out of my noggin.

Had my first real parents-aren’t-hip faux pas during the trip. My son and daughter were having a little back and forth about something. My girl got a real good zinger on my boy. I said, “Oooh, you got burned.” Apparently, the phrase these days is “you got served.” Received a few hearty guffaws for that one. Oh well, just the first of many I suspect;
On the drive down, got behind a car that had an Auburn Tiger bumper sticker on one side. The other side had a sticker which had a Rebel flag with “Fighting Terrorism Since 1861” written on it. Have to admit was more than a little relieved to see my university was not on the car AND it had a Florida license plate on it instead of Alabama. We lost the War of Northern Aggression. Get over it already;
Never really realize how much you use your smart phone to pass them time until you can’t get a signal. Kept mine with me on the cruise for the camera. Can’t tell you how many times I reached for it to look something up on the internet only to realize I didn’t have a signal out there. We’re thinking about looking into the international plan with our provider for next year’s cruise;
My son and I went to see a Braves spring training game. We sat in the grass out in left field behind the Mets’ bullpen. One pitcher out there was giving autographs. My son stood in line with about 10 other people and got one. When I asked him who it was, he didn’t know and didn’t care. Looked the dude’s number up on the spring training roster and couldn’t find him there, either, which probably means he has no chance of making the big team. Dawned on me how people want your autograph and don’t really care who you are as long as you are wearing one of those uniforms;
Went to a pin trading event while we were at Disney. Wife and kids had a real ball at it. Didn’t trade for anything myself, but enjoyed the people watching. Was a wide variety of people in attendance there. Reminded me of the Cantina scene in Star Wars: A New Hope;
While I was standing in the hour-long line for Soaring (we were there at 11:30 PM), it hit me how people can patiently stand in line for hours on end at Disney but they can’t stand to wait two minutes at Walmart. Disney has trained us well…

As always, we had a great time. Have already booked a cruise for next year. Gonna go the first week of June this time so the water will be a little warmer. Can’t wait.

Y’all have a good one!

Hello, It’s Me Again

2011-03-31T23:39:00.002-05:00

WOW! It’s been a while since I’ve posted a blog. Reckon that’s what I get for saying I would update it every week. Still had the fight song from that other school on here. Well, the music has been changed and there are several things happening now that I feel the need to comment on. So, if you are ready to see if I can get back into the swing of things, here we go:

Want to start by recommending a TV show to you. Almost hate to admit I watch Lifetime, but their show Coming Home is one of the best shows on TV right now. It’s about U.S. military personnel returning home from various parts of the world to surprise their families. It’s very well-done. Odd how my allergies tend to make my eyes water so much during the show. It usually features one story throughout the hour and includes several others during the course of that story. Highly recommend you check it out Sunday nights at 9 central;
Went away for vacation for a week and came back to a war in Libya. Been interesting to see the comments around this war. In my mind, it’s not much different than what happened in Iraq. Had a looney tune running the country who needed to be taken out. Just about everything the Colonel has been accused of, the dictator was guilty of, too. Nobody has really mentioned the parallels between the two cases. At least I haven’t seen or heard it. Not sure if President Obama had the authority to do what he did (probably didn’t unless the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (look it up) is still in effect), but it’s gonna be hard to put the horses back in the barn now til it’s over one way or the other. Hopefully we won’t need to send in ground troops. One interesting thing to me is Ghadaffi, Qadafi, or however he spells it, said at the beginning Al Qaeda was supporting the rebels. Have read several articles that say he may be right on that. May end up fighting these folks again……just like Afghanistan….;
On a side note, one of the best tweets I saw leading up to this was someone saying you know your president is looking bad when the French are being more aggressive than you. That was before we started sending missiles but the French had already said they were prepared to bomb the Libyans. At the time we were saying we were going to sit this one out. How’d that work out for us?;
President Obama has had several oxymoron moments this month. Mr. Nobel Peace Prize has now gone to war (at least by his own choice this time). Interesting. He also received an award for the alleged transparency in his administration in a ceremony held behind closed doors with no media present. That just seems like typical Washington-think to me;
Food for thought: Back when W was president and gas prices skyrocketed, conspiracy theorists were coming out of the woodwork yammering about how he was trying to line the pockets of his oil buddies. Funny how you don’t hear those same comments now that the price of gas has doubled since the new president has been in office. Wonder why?;
Watched the HBO Inside Sports show on college football. Have to admit it did not appear to me that the former players were lying. Not sure if that’s cuz what they were saying was true or if they were having a Constanza moment. (Remember what George told Jerry right before the lie detector test? It’s not a lie if you believe it?) Tend to believe there’s some truth to them receiving money cuz I believe it goes on at all (or at least most) universities, especially the big time programs. Don’t know if the players should be paid or not. Do know many of these kids come from less-than-affluent households so they have no money for clothes, shoes or many other essentials needed to go to college. NCAA rules don’t allow them to hold jobs, either. There’s no easy answer to this problem;
Auburn is certainly paying a heavy price for their national championship at this point. Can’t recall any other champions that have had so much turmoil this soon after winning. Allegations of players getting paid, recruiting improprieties, starters getting arrested for felonies, alleged gang activities just to name a few of the things that have come out since they won. Can’t enjoy their championship and hasn’t even been three months, yet. Mr. Newton probably has a lot to do with this. Inadvertently, that is. People started looking closer at Auburn when all of his brouhaha started. The NCAA’s screwy ruling in his and Ohio State’s cases hasn’t helped anything, either. Have a sad feeling AU will be in USC’s boat in a couple of years;
Been a crazy year in the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament. Have heard some people griping about VCU and Butler making it to the Final Four. Just can’t make some folks happy. Most people root for the underdog but no one actually wants them to win. Glad to see some new blood succeeding myself. Although, seeing as how Butler played in the championship game last year, not sure if you can really consider them new blood anymore.
Saw where Phil Collins announced his retirement from the music business the other day. Hate to say it, but figured he had already retired cuz hadn’t heard from him in a while. Was definitely one of the biggest names in music in the 1980’s. Love his work. No music from him this time, but maybe in my next post;
On a lighter note, anyone else follow the Egyptian cobra on Twitter? It got over 200,000 followers in just a matter of a few days, me included. Whoever was doing it was pretty funny and had some really good tweets. Hope they keep it up even though the snake has been returned to its proper cage now.

Well, that’s all I got for now. Feels good writing again. Will have to try harder to keep it up this time.
Thanks as always for making it this far. Hope you are doing well.

Congratulations!

2011-01-11T11:46:00.001-06:00

Congratulations to the 2010 Auburn Tigers! 14-0, SEC Champions, and BCS Champions! Way to keep things going for the SEC!!! Gotta give Oregon credit for hanging with them, though. They played a great game, too. Exciting game all around.

(P.S. – This may be the only time you ever hear this fight song on my blog…)

Random Mish-mash

2011-01-06T10:42:00.001-06:00

Well, the holidays are over. Hope everyone survived them OK. We actually had a white Christmas at our house. According to the news, the first one in about 100 years. Was very pretty.

Got a few things to get out of the noggin. So, if you’re interested, here we go:

The family went to Disney over New Year’s weekend. Celebrated the new year and the twins’ 10th birthday. Have never seen that many people in one place. They reached capacity at 11 am on December 31. The good news was, with the exception of one ride, we didn’t have to wait more than an hour for any attraction. The fireworks show at the Magic Kingdom that night was the best I’ve ever seen. Period. Only had one real complaint about the whole weekend. Rented a locker on New Year’s Eve. When you return the key, you get a $5 deposit back. When I returned my key, that particular register was out of cash and they gave me credit on my debit card. I paid cash so I expected cash back. After all, they had been raking in lots o’ cash all day long so know they had it there somewhere. Anyway, the crowds thinned out starting on January 1 so the rest of the weekend was even more enjoyable. The wife and I agreed we were glad we experienced it, but we’re not so sure we would want to do it again;
The new Congress starts this week. Hope they accomplish some things that get our country back on track. Have read the Pubs are going to spend the first few weeks doing things that look good but don’t have much meat to them such as repeal Obamacare. Before you start to panic or celebrate, President Obama has the power to veto any repeals so it’s not very likely to happen since there are not enough Pubs to override a veto. Would rather they immediately get to the meat, even though I’m still not sure what their plans are. Will hope for the best on that. Also read they are about to take a two week break. Wish I could take two weeks off after starting a new job. Oh well, guess those pesky things like unemployment will solve themselves eventually;
Speaker of the House Boehner cut Congressional staff budgets by 5%. Some people have commented how this is only a small drop in the deficit bucket. Reckon it’s mostly symbolic, but guess you have to start somewhere. Looks like they are going to raise the debt ceiling again, which indicates spending will continue to increase. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Wish I could raise my debt ceiling at will like that;
Saw where the Pubs are going to read the Constitution out loud during an upcoming session. Wonder if anybody will learn anything from it? Frankly, will be surprised if many of the Congressmen hang around to hear it. They have too much important stuff to do than hang around listening to someone read our most important document. You know, things like planning junkets to exotic countries, attending lunches with special interest groups, working out at the gym. Important stuff like that. It is a good gesture, though. If it helps one representative remember they are there to serve the people, it will be worth it;
Got the big BCS Championship game between Auburn and Oregon coming up. Auburn is in the SEC and I like Oregon so it doesn’t really matter who wins to me. Ultimately, my loyalty to the SEC will probably win out, though. Think it will be a great game. While Oregon hasn’t faced a defense like Auburn’s, Auburn hasn’t faced an offense who thinks they are going too slow if the ball isn’t snapped before the play clock hits 20. Oregon definitely hasn’t faced a player the caliber of Cam Newton, either. Won’t be surprised with either team winning. Only thing that will surprise me will be a blowout by either school;
Heard the Ohio State fans were taunting the Arkansas fans with chants of “SEC!” after they barely beat the 4th or 5th best team in the SEC. Congratulations, Big Ten fans, your conference went 1-3 against the SEC, including one of your co-champions losing by 42. Can see where you would want to celebrate that accomplishment;
Feel bad for TCU. They’re undefeated with no chance of even being considered for the national championship. More times than not, the BCS Championship game has had the two best teams playing in it. In years like this one and 2004, you are left wanting a little more closure. The NCAA says they don’t want a playoff because it will keep the athletes out of class too much. The current bowl system stretches into the middle of January now. How much more class would they really be missing? Hope they will at least go to a “plus one” system in the next couple years. We shall see.

Well, that’s all I got for now. Going to get back to posting weekly again now that the holidays are over. As always, thanks for hanging with me. Please feel free to leave a comment or two.

Happy New Year!

A Few Thoughts

2010-12-20T16:01:00.001-06:00

Well, quite a few things going on in the news nowadays. Thought I’d take a few minutes to touch on some of them. Most end on positive notes, especially the last one. Hope you enjoy:

After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, Congress agreed to extend the Bush tax cuts. Never really doubted they would for several reasons. For starters, why would they make 97% of the taxpayers mad cuz they couldn’t agree on what to do on the other 3%? Second, the 3% make the biggest contributions to the campaign coffers. Are they really going to risk hacking them off? Wouldn’t think so, especially since a lot of them are in that 3%. At some point, taxes will have to go back up, but consumer confidence is so shaky that this is not the time;
Several things piqued my interest during this whole debate. One is the Tea Party joined sides with the Dems and came out against the compromise. Seems odd to me since most Dems talked about what loons the TP folks are back during the elections. Guess they might not be as crazy as the Dems thought…for now, anyway. Another is most Dems mad about the agreement aren’t really upset about the deal itself. They are just mad it appears President Obama caved so easily. A third thing is they decided to cut the Social Security tax taken out of your paycheck by 2%. Don’t get me wrong. Never disagree with getting more money in my paycheck. But, does seem odd when both sides keep talking about how SS is going to be broke any day now. Wonder which side will take credit/blame for it several years from now?;
Looks like North Korea has decided the world has not been paying enough attention to them. They’ve been keeping things stirred up with South Korea here lately. They really have a good thing going. Any time NK decides they need some attention/money, they rattle their sabers a little. The big players come with money in hand to buy NK off for a little while longer. Then they quiet back down again. Attila the Hun did the same thing to the Romans back in the day. History really does repeat itself. If only all wars could be fought that way;
Some exciting news on the battle against AIDS! Doctors in Germany state they cured a man through a human stem cell transplant. ‘Tis a great breakthrough and sounds exciting on the surface. However, the doctors caution this was a one-in-a-billion thing. The stem cells had a very rare mutation making them immune to HIV, and it’s not very likely this will happen again anytime soon. Still, it shows we are making progress against the disease and there is some hope for ultimately defeating it in the future. You can read more about the breakthrough in this article;
Glad to see LeBron and the Heat are coming around. Think Mr. James has taken more grief than he’s deserved during this whole mess. Outside of Cleveland, think most of the backlash has been over “The Decision” rather than his decision. The old saying is “Winning cures everything.” Now that the Heat are on a roll and LeBron went back to Cleveland without incident, the negative stuff has started going away. Things will probably remain calm til the finals. The media will be apoplectic whether the Heat win or lose. Even more so if they get knocked out before the finals. But, that’s what sells papers and advertising;
Recently, someone burned down Birmingham’s city Christmas tree. They removed the lights then started a fire with gasoline to separate the copper from the plastic. Apparently Penguin and The Joker didn’t move far enough from the tree and set it on fire, too. What has happened since is like something right out of Dr. Suess. Within a week, someone has donated a new tree; a local company has donated security cameras along with monitoring; and, local citizens have been coming by with new decorations. You can almost see the Grinch’s heart growing three sizes today. With all the negative you hear about nowadays, it’s refreshing to see Christmas spirit still lives.

As always, thanks for reading my thoughts. Hope each and every one of you has a great holiday season!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Giving Thanks

2010-11-24T11:45:00.001-06:00

As you probably know, it’s Thanksgiving week in the US. Just thought would list out a few things I’m thankful for this year. Maybe some will make you think of yours. In no particular order:

My wife and two children. Because of my job, they have to put up with a lot of absences. Yet, they still somehow manage to put up with me. Tell people all the time it takes a special spouse to put up with someone with a job like mine. My wife is definitely one of them. Love all three more than they can ever imagine;
My extended family. Don’t get to see and talk to them as much as I would like, but we manage to keep up with each other in one form or another;
God loves me (and you) even though I don’t love Him as much as He deserves;
Live in a country where I’m free to worship God as I please. Don’t have to worry about going to jail, getting executed, or whatever because I believe in God and choose to worship Him. You can also not worship Him, if you choose, with no repercussions…from the government, anyway;
My friends. Known a few for nearly all my life. Many it just seems that way (which is good). Some only know through Twitter and Facebook. Am thankful for each and every one of you. My life wouldn’t be the same without you. Hope to meet my online friends face-to-face someday;
The internet. Without it, wouldn’t be able to find all my old friends, make new friends, keep up with the latest news and sports, and the various ways we use it to pass away the day;
Music and the ability to hear it. Music does so many things in our lives can’t possibly list them all. Tells stories, brings back memories, offers praises, and eases pain just to list a few. A lot of the new stuff sounds the same to me, but still grateful for it;
Anyone who reads my blogs. Do this thing just to get the voices out of my head, but have to admit it feels good to know, every now and then, there’s a few people out there interested in what I ramble on about;
Our government. Yes, they don’t always do what makes sense and they catch a lot of grief (deservedly so), but, we couldn’t live in a relatively peaceful society without them. While our government may not be perfect, there are certainly worse ones throughout the world;
Veterans and their families. Without veterans (and their support systems), we wouldn’t have the freedom to enjoy blessings we have.

Well, these are ten things I can think of just off the top of my head. There’s many more but time doesn’t permit me to list them all. Feels good to know I have so many blessings. Am sure you have many more blessings than you realize, too.

Y’all have a good one!

Thank a Veteran!

2010-11-10T22:56:00.000-06:00

Thank you, Veterans, for serving our country and preserving our freedoms!

Sure most of you know Thursday, November 11 is Veteran's Day here in the good ol’ US of A. The holiday was originally known as Armistice Day to commemorate the end of World War I, the (first) War to End All Wars. Well, since it wasn't, we now use the day to honor all veterans, whether they served during war time or peace time. Think most people would agree every day should be Veteran's Day, but it is great to have one day which is specifically set aside for just for our veterans.

These heroes walk among us every day. Many of our heroes are buried around the world because they were fighting for us (and our allies). Please take the time to thank our veterans on their special day. Also encourage you to lift up special prayers for them (and their families) whether they are currently serving (domestically or abroad) or are no longer on active duty.

We should give general thanks to each and every one of them for voluntarily (now, anyway) serving our country. However, there are some things we should specifically thank them for. So, thanks, Veterans, for the following (this is only a partial list):

The right to speak freely without worrying about going to jail (or worse)
The right to vote without fear of repercussions such as getting fingers chopped off, going to jail, etc
The right to criticize our government
The ability to criticize our way of life
The ability to have a new government without military coups, bloodshed, etc
The freedom to read this blog (and lots of others) without having to hide in the basement or closet
The freedom to write your own blog
The freedom to practice your chosen religion
The freedom not to practice any religion (though personally not sure why you would want to do that)
The ability to sleep at night without worrying about our enemies attacking
The ability to live in a country people literally risk their lives everyday trying to get here
The hope that you can become a millionaire regardless of where you start in life
The right to a free press (whether you like them or not)
The ability to travel anywhere in the country you want anytime you want
The freedom to learn how to read and write
The ability to live a life where your biggest obsession can be if your team wins or not
The right to protest (or sue) your government to protect your rights
The freedom for Jimi Hendrix (a veteran) and others to put their own spin on our national anthem

These are but a few things we can (and should) thank veterans for. Please feel free to add anything you would like to thank them for in the comments below. Know there are several veterans who read this blog so at least some of them will see it.

So, again, thank you, Veterans, for all you have done for me and our country! May God bless you and may God bless the United States of America!

My Take

2010-11-03T23:30:00.001-05:00

Well, every yahoo who can string together a few words is commenting on the election results. Reckon I might as well, too.

Back when the health care reform was passed, lots of folks said they were going to remember it come November. Looks like they weren’t kidding. Not only did Congress pass a bill few people understood, they pushed through a bill they said had to be passed now or else. According to polls at the time (and now, for that matter), a majority of people were agin the bill. When people found out it was going to be 2014 before most of the major provisions kicked in, folks really got to wondering what the rush was when about 10% of Americans don’t have jobs. Have said it before, folks ain’t gonna be happy ‘til there’s more jobs out there. FDR figured that out and created several job programs. Didn’t really help the economy at the time, but people felt better cuz they had paying jobs.

One exit poll I saw last night said people were mad about the economy first then health care reform then a list of other things including taxes, the war, and some other things. Another poll I saw said just as many people were wanting to “fire” Nancy Pelosi with their votes as were wanting to send a message to President Obama they ain’t happy with his agenda. Thought that was kind of interesting.

There are several other things I found interesting about the election. In no particular order:

Maybe it was just my perception, but seemed to be several media folks with long faces last night. Not really sure what that means. Can say I saw one Chicago reporter talking about the e-mails and tweets she was getting from the Dem party and President Obama asking the recipients to encourage people to get out and vote. One can only wonder why she would be on those e-mail lists much less reporting on the content? Maybe she’s on the Pub lists, too, but they just weren’t sending out that stuff. Yeah, right.;
The last time the Pubs gained this many seats at once was right after Social Security was passed, which was very unpopular when it was passed, too;
Was reminded last night if the Pubs do manage to pass a bill reversing the current health care reform bill, it will have to be signed by Mr. Obama, who has the power to veto it. Just sayin’;
Many Dems wanted nothing to do with Obama during this election and actually called on Bill Clinton to campaign for them rather than the president. Neither one of ‘em seemed to have helped much;
Guess the American people didn’t really give the Dems a mandate back in ‘08. Or, if they did, it was quickly revoked. Voters sure can be fickle sometimes;
Some exit polls reflected Pub voters think the gov’t is going too far and the Dem voters think the gov’t ain’t going far enough. What a shock;
All of a sudden, the Dems think both parties should work together rather than just one party dictating everything. Imagine that;
The Pubs claim they are not interpreting this election as being given a mandate…for now. They say this is the American people saying it’s time to put up or shut up. Voters ain’t happy with the Dems and the Pubs are the only alternative. Imagine if they don’t like what the Pubs do the next two years, they’ll kick them out, too;
California elected Dems in the two major races but weren’t so liberal-minded when it came to Prop 19, which would have legalized marijuana. Got voted down by a purty healthy margin. Guess they don’t want their weed taxed. How anti-establishment of them;
The Tea Party did fairly well. They won some and they lost some. Hear they don’t want to be a third party. They just want to reform the GOP. Think they would be better off splitting off on their own. They’ve tapped into a lot of voter anger. If their candidates in DE and NV hadn’t been so out there, they probably would have won those seats, too;
Maybe it’s just me, but think the media is giving Sarah Palin a little too much credit for last night. Yes, she endorsed some people who went on to win. But, think people voted for those candidates despite Mrs. Palin rather than cuz of her. Have my doubts many people will want to vote her into the Oval office as I heard insinuated several times last night. Only time will tell…

Hope both parties learned an important lesson with this election. While sometimes you have to show leadership courage and take folks down a path they may not want to go, there are times you have to listen to what the people are tryin’ to tell ya and change accordingly. Ultimately, we voters have the final say-so on your job performance. We the people have the power to pick and choose our leaders, and we ain’t afraid to use it.

Anyway, that’s what this yahoo thinks about the election. Whether you are happy with the results or not, they are what they are. It’s long been past time for folks to come together and find solutions rather than being hard-headed ninnies thinking they are the only ones with the answers. If this bunch wants to be the latter, reckon they’ll find out who’s boss two years from now, too.

Y’all have a good one.

Time to Vote!

2010-10-30T22:54:00.001-05:00

Just want to remind everyone in the good ol’ USA to cast your vote on Tuesday. Thousands of men and women have paid the ultimate price for you to have the right to do it. Please don’t let them have died in vain if you can help it.

Right after I moved to Daphne, AL, there was a vote coming up on raising some money for the library. This old man asked if I was going to be voting. Explained I had just moved there and hadn’t had a chance to register, yet. (Forgot to mention I lived outside the city limits and couldn’t vote in that particular election, anyway) He said, “Well, guess you’ll have no right to complain then, will ya?” And, he was right in the big picture of things. Anytime you choose not to vote, you give up your right to complain about how things are in the political world, or at least you should. Country’s got enough people who complain. If you ain’t gonna cast your vote, you are just as much of the problem as the people you‘re blaming.

So, please take the time to vote on Tuesday. Lots o’ folks are saying this is an important election. Every election is an important one cuz it’s gonna affect you one way or the other. One thing about it: things ain’t gonna change unless you at least cast your vote. Even a lot of dissenting votes sends a message to the eventual winner. And, just for the record, even though I will not be in town for the election, have already cast my absentee ballot.

Y’all have a good one!

The Tea Party: Good or Bad?

2010-10-07T21:52:00.001-05:00

Gonna do things a little differently this time. The usual reader knows I normally cover a variety of topics in each blog. But, been seein’ and hearin’ so much about the Tea Party, feel the need to devote a whole one just to them. Not asking you to be fer or agin what I’m gonna throw out there, but hope you’ll take a little time to think about it. If nothin’ else, hope you enjoy this week’s soundtrack.

Saw a headline the other day asking if the Tea Party is good or bad for the country. They’ve obviously been getting a lot of press ever since they surfaced a couple years ago. Most of it ain’t been very flattering, either. Generally, they are portrayed as angry citizens who are against anything that the government, specifically President Obama, stands for. Both the Pubs and Dems are running smear campaigns against them. The mainstream media is falling in lock step and pouring fuel on the fire that Tea Party members are nothing more than a bunch of nutcases. Can’t really remember any stories that are portraying them in a positive light. If you know of any, hope you’ll post a link in the comments below so I can read it.

Will admit that I don’t really know all that they stand for. But, have a real hard time believing they are ALL loony tunes. Think they were a little quick to jump on the anti-Obama bandwagon (think they started protesting him before he even took office, could be wrong about that, though), but that don’t necessarily make ‘em crazy. From what I can gather, they mostly believe the government is becoming too intrusive into our every day lives. Based on their name, would think they feel like we are being taxed without proper representation, too. Although we don’t always want to admit it, these are two of the basic premises our country was founded on.

With all this being said, here’s a few things been chewing over in my gray matter about these folks:

First, would like to say I think the Tea Party is good for America but not necessarily why you might think. Have said before there’s a lot of people in this country who don’t officially identify with either major party we currently have. They basically vote for whoever, in their mind, is the lesser of the two evils. And, even if a politician is elected with 60% of the vote, there’s still 40% out there who might think their voice is not being heard. (Kind of lends credence to that whole “taxation without representation” line of thought) Unfortunately, folks who feel this way generally tend to tune out of political discourse rather than getting more involved, even to the point of refusing to vote. To me, the Tea Party is a place for some of this “silent majority” to vent their frustrations, get involved, etc. Anything which gets more citizens involved in the political process has to be a good thing. After all, at this time in our history, less than 50% of the people eligible to vote actually use this right men and women have fought and died for us to have. That’s a pretty sad statistic if you ask me. If the Tea Party can get more people out to vote, on a regular basis, I say more power to ‘em!

Second, think they are good for America cuz they have gotten the attention of both the Dems and Pubs, especially in this election cycle where several candidates they’ve backed have won their respective primaries. Both sides are doing all they can to discredit them. Since they are agin big government and more taxes, the Dems don’t see eye to eye with them. Since the Pubs are losing a chunk of their supporters to the Tea Party, they’re not real happy with them, either. Neither party has been this concerned about outsiders since Mr. Perot won about 10% of the vote in the ‘92 presidential election. That’s the last time both parties actually listened to folks besides their “base” supporters in my opinion. It’s time for politicians (and voters, too, for that matter) to realize folks outside of their hardcore supporters have ideas, too. There are a lot more of the “middle” folks out there than extremists of either party, too. So, if the Tea Party folks will remind the D’s and R’s they need to listen to ALL of the people (or at least more folks outside of their inner circles), I say more power to ‘em again!

Third, if they want to be taken seriously, they need to do a better job of checking out the people they’re supporting in the elections. The lady in Delaware is really coming across as a whacko. She’s the subject of more punch lines than debates. (She’s a good example of someone both parties are railing against) The dude in Kentucky comes across as a little out there from time to time, too. While few people could withstand the rectal exam that the media puts candidates through today, probably could have found some folks that had a few less cobwebs (or cauldrons) in the closet. On the other hand, given the state we are in cuz of the so-called “normal” politicians, could be time to shake things up a little…But, for long-term survival, you need to have candidates more average Janes and Joes can relate to. So, this is definitely one area they will have to improve on.

Fourth, they need to find a format where they can get their story out without coming across as being angry and irrational. This will be the hardest thing for them to overcome in today’s world of the soundbite. Unfortunately, if your ideas can’t be condensed down to 60 seconds or less, many people lose interest. And, the TV media ain’t gonna give you any airtime without a visual hook of some sort. A politician speaking rationally behind a microphone don’t cut it in their world. But, if one or two (or more) of their candidates somehow manage to get elected, you can bet there’ll be a lot more in-depth coverage devoted to them.

Overall, I think they are a good thing for America whether you agree with their platform or not. Are they the best answer to all our issues today? Probably not. Not now, any way. But, ultimately, they are getting more people involved in the political process, which is a good thing. Who knows? IF they can find some viable candidates (which may be easier said than done), they could actually survive and become a viable third party (or maybe even a second party). After all, there was neither a Democratic nor a Republican party in the first several elections inside our great nation. You just never know what may happen…If nothing else, maybe they will show some of our “mainstream” politicos there’s a bunch of folks who are tired of the same ol’, same ol’, and it’s time they start working together to get things done before it’s too late.

Appreciate you hangin’ in here with me. Like I said earlier, not asking you to agree with my thoughts, just hopin’ it will spur some of your own.

Y’all have a good week.

A Little Bit of This…

2010-09-28T22:23:00.001-05:00

Well, fall is finally in the air. Football season is under way, the NHL is playing exhibition games, the temps are falling, and there are political ads out the wazoo. What more can you ask for? Got a few things to talk about this week. Hope you’re interested enough to hear me out. Gonna end on a positive note this week, too. So try to stick around if you can. Promise you’ll enjoy the last snippet. With that being said, let’s get ready to reeeeaaaaaddddddddddd:

Not gonna be able to run in Birmingham’s Susan G. Komen, a great and wonderful cause, 5K run this year. Was able to run a 5K here a couple weeks ago. Was sponsored by Time Warner Cable and $5 of every entry fee went towards breast cancer awareness, whatever that means. Have had a tough time running in both races. Get to thinking about my grandmama and mother both beating breast cancer. Also think about my Aunt Trisha losing her battle with it. Well, she always figured she was going to win either way. She was either gonna beat the cancer or get to meet Jesus face-to-face. Will always admire the attitude she had during her fight. Never really care about my time or what place I come in during these races, it’s more about the cause to me. Highly encourage each and every one of you to be sure to check yourself for lumps on a regular basis. That includes you, too, men. If you think men can’t get it, just look up Ace Frehley on the internet one day. Might be surprised. And, women you should also be sure to get a mammogram whenever you get a chance. It’s been proven over and over again they detect cancer at its earliest stages, which is the best time to beat it;
Ain’t political ads fun to watch? They’re usually more about the lies the other guy has told than what the politician it’s about is gonna do. Think the best one I’ve seen is one about a politician who stopped a crime from being committed. Sounds like he got beat up pretty bad in the process. There’s an ad for him that talks about how this shows he has great character. I think it’s great that he stepped in and saved the day. But, part of me also thinks, if he had such great character, he wouldn’t be trying to use this to his advantage in an election. But, in his defense, there’s no “I’m so-and-so and I approve of this ad” statement at the end. So, it could be some his supporters have put this ad out and not him. (Just for the record, though, his wife speaks in the ad.) However, have noticed he sports a very obvious, bright white bandage on his hand in the ads he does approve of. Sad thing is, I can’t even tell you what office he or his opponent are running for. In my defense, it is an ad for a politician in a state other than the one I live in. Only pay about half attention to those ads in my home state. Pay about half of that in someone else’s state. At least they’re trying to talk about his positives. Have said it once, and will say it again: if all you got to brag about is you’re not your opponent, you ain’t got much to offer, either;
Been hearing a lot of yapping bout folks being disappointed that Obama ain’t solved the world’s problems in two years. Now, ain’t a fan of the man nor his policies, but anyone who thought he’d cure everything in two years should probably not be allowed to vote again, ever. Well, not really, but it does show the short-sightedness of the American electorate. In case you ain’t been paying attention, this is a world-wide economic downturn. We are so dependent on the world economy, there’s only so much we can do as a country to improve things. Reckon we’ll just keep overturning our elected officials until things finally straighten out. Our economy has always gone through cycles. We are currently on a downturn. Part of me thinks some of the problem is we’ve basically legislated out the depression phase of it. Great prosperity has always followed a depression whether we want to admit it or not. Ain’t wishing a depression on us, but my point is eventually the economy will cycle through this downturn and things will get better. None of the legislation passed during the 1930’s brought us out of the Great Depression. But, it gave Americans hope, which goes a longer way than just about anything else. Most of the hope was created by creating jobs. Can’t say any of the legislation passed in the last four years or so has given folks much hope. Reckon that’s why President Obama is in such trouble, if you believe the polls, anyway. Imagine it ain’t a coincidence they just announced the recession has supposedly been over since June…2009. Not really sure how they come to figure that out now. But, will say it’s mighty convenient it was announced right before the mid-term elections when the Dems are supposedly trailing badly in many races. Maybe I’m just being overly suspicious, though…;
See where Lady Gaga has gotten involved in the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” debate. Think a majority of Americans (including our elected officials on both sides of the aisle) support doing away with this silly policy. The problem is the language which does away with it is wrapped into other stuff which ain’t so good. This is the problem most of the time. Kind of like the debate which said the Pubs were agin extending unemployment benefits a while back. They weren’t agin extending the benefits, they were agin the way they were going to be funded. There’s usually more to a story than most Americans want to dig into. Not sure why this is not just a bill in and of itself. Would pass with flying colors. Anyway, at least Ms. Gaga appears to be taking the issue seriously, unlike Stephen Colbert when he was called to testify about illegal immigration. Read Congress will sometimes call celebrities to bring attention to a particular cause. Not sure what knucklehead thought calling Colbert was a good idea. First of all, they had to know he wasn’t going to take it seriously. Second, this is a pretty hot topic right now so tricks shouldn’t have been needed to draw attention to this subject. Nice to know our elected officials are taking things so seriously right now;
Been lots of brouhaha about Katy Perry and her duet with Elmo. Saw the video. Think it’s much ado bout nothin myself. Seems like the kids on lots of kid’s shows dress a lot racier than she did. The Sesame Street folks have been doing this a long time. Would think people would trust their judgment by now. But, some folks nowadays just like to complain bout everything. By her standards, her dress was pretty tame. In just about every picture I’ve ever seen of her, she usually has a very low cut top on with a push-up bra shoving those things halfway up to Canada. To me, it’s hard to tell she has any cleavage in the offending outfit. But, in the long run, Sesame Street is getting a lot of publicity out this whole thing. Proving once again that any pub is good pub;
Heard an interesting debate the other day bout whether golf has lost it’s mainstream status now that Tigger’s struggling. My man TK Stack Money (that’s Tony Kornheiser to most folks) was saying golf never has been a mainstream sport, especially in comparison to the other sports. As much as it pains me to say this, have to agree with that statement. Think Tigger has been mainstream, but not golf itself, least not at the pro level. (Lot more people play golf than watch it on TV.) Lot of people today don’t watch for the golf. They watch to see what Tigger is doing. Supposedly, TV ratings go way down when he’s either not in contention or not playing in the tournament at all. Just proves they ain’t golf fans, they’re Tigger fans. Such a shame, too. Many people complain about the it’s-all-about-me attitude of many professional athletes these days. Pro golfers are just about as polar opposite of this that you can imagine. That’s both the men and the women, by the way. I actually prefer to watch the LPGA cuz they show their personalities a lot more while they are playing. It’s a real shame more folks don’t watch them. Anyway, if you want to watch a sport where the players have honesty and integrity, take a little while to watch some golf on the telly. It’s actually kind of relaxing;
OK, here’s the positive ending I promised. Ever heard of Ike Ditzenberger? Well, you are about to. He’s a 17 year old boy with Down Syndrome. He goes to Snohomish High School out in Washington. He also happens to be on the football team. The coach promised Ike he will play in practice as long as he keeps his shoulder pads on and his mouthpiece in. Every time he does, Coach Mark Perry closes practices with The Ike Special, a play where Ike gets to carry the ball for a touchdown. Ike’s dream has been to score in an actual game. Last Friday night in a game against Lake Stevens High School, Coach Perry called The Ike Special on the final play of the game. Ike ran it 51 yards for the touchdown! Now, Lake Stevens was in on it, and they let him score. But, the defenders added touches of realism by “trying” to tackle him, even diving and missing several times. Lake Stevens won the game on paper 35-6, but in my opinion, both teams won that game. My hat is off to both coaches. This is what sports should be all about if you ask me. If you want to read the story and/or see the play, just follow this here link to see The Ike Special. You won’t regret it.

Well, that’s all I got for now. Appreciate you hanging in here with me, and hope you’re having a great week.

I’m out!

Are You Serious?

2010-09-16T23:53:00.002-05:00

Every now and then, you read a story that just makes you want to say, “Are you serious?” Sometimes it’s cuz you can’t believe what you just read. Sometimes it’s cuz you have to wonder why is this a story in the first place? Well, have seen a few of those this week that I feel the need to comment on. So, if you’re curious what makes me say, “Are you serious,” here we go:

Bunch of folks were commenting on Twitter and Facebook about the dad-blamed Video Music Awards. Ain’t exactly sure why, either. First of all, they are on a channel called Music Television, which don’t even play music anymore, much less music videos. Second of all, seems like there’s some sort of award show on every other week. Feel like we are in award show overload. To me, the only purpose for most of ‘em is for the artists to pat themselves on the back about what great artists they think they are. Third, the artists feel like they have to get more and more extreme every year so people will pay attention to them. (Reckon you probably heard about Lady Gaga’s meat dress or Cher’s plastic body whether you wanted to or not) Guess mostly just can’t figure out why folks make such a big deal about the awards when MTV has nowhere near the influence on music and culture that it used to. Hoping someone will explain it to me;
From the “Only in Alabama” department, some lady tried to set a roller skating rink on fire and to blow up the house of a roller derby coach apparently cuz her roommate and the coach were having some sort of dispute. There’s barely any legitimate reasons to do something like that, much less over some stupid game. That’s just plain nuts. Hate to think what she would try against any opposing teams if they won against the team. Imagine it will eventually come out she’s got some sort of mental deficiency (duh). At least I sort of hope so. Hate to think someone would have such little regard for human life to do something like this without some sort of mental defect. Unbelievable. And, all of this cuz of roller derby. Roller derby? Are you kidding me? Now, if she’d been upset over an Alabama or Auburn game…Just kidding, but sadly more Alabamians would understand why she did it;
If you’re gonna wear your britches around your knees while packing heat, try not to get busted for selling marijuana. Dude in Minnesota was arrested for selling pot outside of a local restaurant. During the process of the arrest, his baggy pants fell on the ground. The female officer reached down to pull them up and felt a pistol in one of the pockets. The suspect tried to claim it was an illegal search and seizure and pled it all the way up to the MN State Supreme Court. The Court disagreed and now he’ll spend some extra time in the pokey cuz of his baggy britches. Well, in all honesty, sure the officer would have found the pistol eventually and am sure the court probably took that into consideration. But, still, sort of lends credence to the old saying, “Drugs will make you stupid.” Just glad the court had some smarts about ‘em…for a change;
From the “Your Government Dollars at Work” category, read an article about how some of the stimulus money has been spent. Apparently $823,200 went to a scientist at UCLA so he could study the effects of washing genitals after sex in South Africa. Supposed to be about AIDS prevention. Now, I’m about as much of a “big picture” person as you’ll probably ever find, but am having a hard time trying to figure out: A. what AIDS prevention in South Africa has to do with anything in the US; and, B. how this is supposed to stimulate the US economy and create jobs. Guess you can argue preventing AIDS in Africa might eventually help prevent AIDS in the US. And reckon the money did create (sort of) jobs for the scientist and his assistants. But, still, don’t make much sense on the surface when that money could have gone towards creating jobs for people who have no kind of job at all. After all, that’s what the stimulus bill was supposed to be all about. And politicians wonder why the citizens have little to no confidence in their abilities…;
Am glad the preacher in Florida decided not to have the Koran burning after all. The better angels of my nature would like to think they never really intended to go through with it all along. Reckon we’ll never know, though. Did see a poll on CNN.com this week asking if they had the right to burn it in the first place. Can’t believe this is actually debatable. Of course they have the right to burn it. But, as I’ve said before, just cuz you have the right to do something don’t make it right to do that something. But, what really struck me about this question was the attempt to grossly oversimplify the whole situation. This whole story was about ignorance, censorship, intolerance, and attention-grabbing more than anything else. That’s one of the downsides of our freedoms: the media is a big part of the problem in these matters. The preacher became addicted to the attention and the media just kept fueling him on with it’s continuous coverage. But, if the press ain’t free, we ain’t free so reckon we have to put up with the bad so we can have the good. Still don’t make their question make any more sense to me, though;
Every time I got in the car today, the folks on ESPN radio were talking about something Derek Jeter did that was just so egregious they couldn’t believe he did it. Irritating thing was they never would say what he did. So, when I got in, had to look it up. Folks, here’s what he did that was so bad: he faked getting hit by a pitch. Holy cow! Stop the presses! A player tried to get an advantage in a game! Oh, the humanity!!!! Turns out the pitcher threw inside and hit the knob of the bat (Jeter admitted after the game he had not been hit). The umpire asked him if he got hit and he started flopping his arm around like Rodney Dangerfield in Caddyshack. The Yankees were trailing at the time and he was doing anything he could to get on base, which is his job. The next dude happen to hit a home run. Yankees still lost the game, though. Now, no-way, no-how am I anything close to a Yankees fan, but have to applaud the man for what he did. Even the opposing manager, who got thrown out of the game for arguing Jeter didn’t get hit by the pitch, said he didn’t think Jeter did anything wrong and would encourage his own players to do the same thing. The real rub to the media is Jeter’s a real media golden boy and they now feel betrayed cuz he’s just a competitor trying to win at all costs just like everyone else in the world. Well, I say, get over it! It’s called taking advantage of baseball’s stupid decision not to use replay more. Nobody would be complaining if he had leaned into the pitch to get hit. They’d be praising him for “taking one for the team.” Not much difference in my mind. It’s debatable whether either one is ethical, and getting hit intentionally is agin the rules, too. So, chill out, Baseball Media. You’re making a big deal out of absolutely nothin’;
Finally, in case you don’t know, marijuana for medicinal purposes is legal out in California. Well, for those folks who want the effect from the HTC but don’t want to inhale, they now have marijuana-flavored ice cream. Article I read says every pint is the equivalent of about eight joints. Said it is literally flying off the shelves of the places that can legally sell it. If you build a better mousetrap… Now, never had a hankering for mary jane myself, but have seen and heard about the mythical “munchies” the stuff can cause. Reckon having weed mixed in with your ice cream might solve that little dilemma. As the great Briscoe Darling, Jr., used to say, “More power to ya…”

Well, reckon that’s enough for now. Appreciate ya making it to the end of the mumbo-jumbo that are my thoughts, if you want to call them that. As always, all comments are welcome whether you’re fer me or agin me.

I’m out!

Do What?

2010-09-07T23:08:00.001-05:00

Been some things in the news lately which just make me want to scratch my head and say, “Do what?” So, thought I’d share them and maybe you can help them make more sense to me. So, if you’re ready and willing, as the late great Jackie Gleason used to say, “And awaayyyy we go”:

See where Steven Slater has parted ways with his now former employer. You may be asking who he is. He’s the Jet Blue flight attendant who cursed a passenger, grabbed a beer, and went down the emergency chute as the plane was coming up to the gate. People were calling him a hero. Got no idea why, though. Wonder how many people missed their connections because of that yahbo? Figure they couldn’t let people get off the plane after that. Were people celebrating the fact he treated one of his customers like *$&)? Unless he was physically in danger, it shouldn’t matter what the passenger said to set him off in the first place. Were they celebrating that the goober was telling his employer to take their job and shove it? Isn’t that nice in these times where about 1 out of 10 people are out of work right now? It just never ceases to amaze me how and why some folks suddenly become folk heroes for acting like idi-ahts. Maybe somebody out there can tell me;
A headline the other day said some cleric over in Iran says the Holocaust is nothing more than a “superstition,” whatever that’s supposed to mean. Well, reckon it means he doesn’t believe it really happened. Have never understood how people can deny the Holocaust. Guess they’re idi-ahts, too. Know it’s hard to imagine 6 million people being killed for nothing more than the religion they were born into, especially over such a relatively short period of time. Met a man once who told me he was one of the first Americans to go into one of those camps. The old codger started crying while he was trying to tell me about what he saw. This was in the mid-90’s, almost 50 years after he’d been there. Ain’t no way I’ll ever doubt it happened, not that I really doubted it in the first place. Anyway, not really sure what prompted the cleric to talk about the Holocaust, but it’s hard to imagine a man of God/Allah could really be so dense. Which leads me to my next “do what?” moment…;
There’s a preacher down in Florida somewhere trying to organize a Quran/Koran burning. Talk about something that makes no sense at all. Even General Patraeus (you know, the big chief of our armed forces in Afghanistan) is talking about how stupid this idea is. He’s got enough on his plate to worry about without having to think about something like this. But, I digress. One thing I’ve never really understood is how some people proclaiming to be Christians can be so intolerant of others. The Bible is pretty clear that Jesus preached a lot about tolerance of others, don’t avoid sinners or non-believers, and love one another whether they are your friend or your enemy. As a Christian, it just boggles my mind how some Christian “leaders” can’t see that they are more like a Pharisee than than a disciple. Does God want us to spread His word and brings others to Christ? Absolutely. No doubt about it. But, God gave us free will because He knows forced love ain’t love at all. We are supposed to bring others to Christ through love and compassion, not hate and condemnation. Maybe it’s like a quote I saw on Twitter the other day, “To some Christians, the Bible is like the terms of agreement, everyone checks the box but few actually read it.” Certainly hope these folks change their mind and don’t go through with it. Of course, that would imply their brains are working in the first place (Yeah, yeah, I realize the irony in the fact I am judging them…);
Glad to see Hurricane Earl turned out to be a bunch of nothing. But, the downside is all the media hype leading to nothing will make people block some of the hype out each time it turns into nothing. Then, when the big one really does hit, it will be Katrina all over again and folks will get killed cuz they think it’s just a bunch of nothing again. Reckon it’s a double-edged sword, though. They have to use the hype so folks will pay attention nowadays, which leads to overstimulation of the senses, which turns it into white noise, which leads to even more hype to get people to pay attention again. Just a vicious never-ending cycle. I always follow the storms on-line, usually on wunderground.com or the National Hurricane Center websites. Dr. Jeff Masters has a great blog on wunderground.com, too. Also use intellicast.com to watch the Atlantic satellite pictures so I can see which systems I think will develop. The best thing about following things on-line is I can choose how much information to look at and believe. So, if that kind of stuff interests you, check ‘em out;
Well, football (yes, football, not footy, for any non-Americans reading this) season is finally here! Glad it’s finally time for the games, too. Had our usual Favre saga this year. The dude I talked about last time finally signed, too. Hope all we have to yak about now are awesome games. Saw where Matt Leinart was cut by the Cardinals the other day. Remember when he was drafted, all the so-called “experts” were talking about what a “can’t miss” prospect he was. Same thing with Reggie Bush. Ain’t neither one of ‘em had the kind of career people yammered on and on about. Just goes to show how tough it is evaluate talent sometimes. Always thought they were kind of overrated myself. Could be a little biased about that, though, since I’m such a big SEC fan. If the Boise State/Virginia Tech game is a sign of things to come, will be a great season this year!;

Well, that’s all I got this time. Thanks as always for trying to follow my rambling thoughts. Hope you are doing well, and, as always, am interested in your opinion, too.

Ya’ll have a good one!

Back To Other Stuff

2010-08-22T23:41:00.001-05:00

Well, there’s finally some things I feel the need to talk about. If you’re curious, here we go:

Read an article the other day which says women buy and wear sexier clothes when they are fertile during the month. It’s mostly done without much thought to it. Guess it goes to show we are not much different from the animals after all. Females in the animal world do all they can to attract males of their species. And, much like the males in the animal world, men will drop everything and come a-runnin’ when certain things are being advertised, contrary to what the beer commercials want you to think;
Been lots of yammerin’ bout this dang mosque they want to build at “Ground Zero.” Should they be allowed to build it or not? Even President Obama has weighed in on it, sort of, but, will get back to him in a minute. This is what I think about all this: Do they have the right to build a mosque wherever they want? Absolutely. If you’ve got the money and the land is available, you should be able to build just about anything you want to anywhere you want to build it. Is this the best location for them to build one? Probably not, but don’t know exactly what their plans are. Maybe they’re going to use it as some sort of memorial to the 9/11 victims. I don’t know. What I do know is you can’t blame 9/11 on Islam any more than you can blame the killing of abortion doctors on Christianity. Just because there are a few nuts in the religion don’t mean everyone who practices it is a nut, too. And, like it or not, our country was founded on the principle that folks could practice any religion they want. That’s why the First Amendment says the government shall not establish one over another. I can just about guarantee you Iran wouldn’t let a Christian church or Jewish synagogue build anywhere they want. Do you really want to live in a country which acts like that?;
Knew when President Obama spoke out in support of building the mosque, he was making a big mistake. Know what he was trying to accomplish, but it was a miserable failure. He tried to back out of it the next day by saying he wasn’t saying he agreed with the wisdom of building it there, but it was too late. All those folks that say he’s a Muslim and not born in the US came out of the woodworks again. This gave them the ammo they’ve been looking for, and apparently some people who didn’t necessarily believe them are starting to have second thoughts about whether they may be right after all. First, think it’s been established the dude was born in Hawaii. Get over it. Second, he’s been a Christian for years, and, even if he is a Muslim, does it really matter? A vast majority of Muslims are against the terrorists who just happen to be Muslim. Even if he’s trying to be a subversive Muslim (and he’s NOT), there’s enough checks and balances in our system to keep him from being too successful at it. In the long run, hope he learned he should think all the way through before he makes a prepared statement and make sure it says everything he wants it to say;
Keep seeing how the Dems are still trying to blame everything on W. You know what? He’s been gone for two years. If all you have to run on after two years is “It’s all Bush’s fault,” you must not have much to offer, either. Besides you had control of Congress the last two years of his presidency so you share some of the blame, too. So, how bout both sides start coming up with some solutions and stop blaming each other for the mess we are in? Thank you;
Football season is almost here, and I can’t wait for it to start. Been following this whole Darelle Revis story a little. For those of you who don’t know, he plays cornerback for the New York Jets. When he signed his first contract, it was for 5 years at a little over a million dollars a year. Now, after two years, he wants to renegotiate it and is holding out. Part of me thinks he’s wrong cuz I’m sure he insisted on the five year part before he would sign it. Understand they want some stability, but, why insist on a long-term contract when you know you will probably outgrow that contract in a couple of years? But, then again, I also know the owners really have the upper hand in this whole deal. Players only have a finite number of years to play so the sense of urgency is more on their end. Owners can also terminate the contract anytime they want to. That’s why the players insist on the guaranteed money in the contract. I’ll just be glad once the games actually start so we can talk X’s and O’s instead of $’s. Part of the reason I just enjoy pro football but am really a college football fan. At least with college football, you don’t have to worry about things like contracts and whatnot. You just have to worry about gettin caught payin’ them in the first place;
On a positive note, see where Vin Scully has agreed to come back to announce the Dodger games next year. Will be his 62nd season with them. I’m as big a Harry Caray fan as there is, but I think Mr. Scully is the greatest baseball announcer there ever was, is now, and ever will be. Can remember watching him and Joe Garigiola calling the NBC Game of the Week on Saturday afternoons. Vin was the perfect straight man to Joe’s humor. He also has an natural ease of calling a game. Much like Keith Jackson is THE voice of college football, Vin Scully will always be THE voice of baseball to me.

Well, that’s some of the things on my mind this week. Feel free to let me know what’s on yours.

Y’all have a good one!

A Little Bit of Fun

2010-08-10T23:27:00.001-05:00

Time for a blog, but ain’t feeling very political these days. SueMac on the Run had the following questions on her blog the other day. Thought I’d take a crack at them just for funsies.

And, awaaayyyyy we go:

1. You have $100 to spend on a fun present for yourself. What are you going to buy?

Not really sure. Probably let my wife and/or kids spend it on something they wanted. It’s more fun watching them buy stuff than buy stuff myself. But, if I had to spend it on myself, would probably give it to the sushi chef and tell him to keep surprising me until the money runs out. Always wanted to do that. Mmmmmmm. Suuuuuuushiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

2. Accomplishment I'm most proud of......

The thing I’m most proud of in my life are my wife and kids, but wouldn’t really consider them accomplishments, so to speak. More like blessings. Think I would have to say the accomplishments I’m most proud of are every time I make someone laugh. Very few things in life feel better than laughter. We should all be proud of any time we can make someone laugh, whether it’s with us or at us. OK, maybe more with us.

3. What’s your favorite smell?

Hard to narrow it down to just one cuz have lots of favorite food smells ranging from my wife’s roast beef cooking in the crock pot to my grandmother’s apple pies. But, if had to choose one thing to smell the rest of my life, would probably choose cedar trees. Not the hard-core-knock-you-off-your-feet smell of a cedar chest. Just the smell you get when you are standing next to a tree or two. Love it!

4. You’re dream car

A Jeep CJ-7, which for you youngsters out there, was the Jeep Wrangler before folks got excited about vehicle rollovers. Have always wanted one.

5. Favorite Season

Fall. Just something about the leaves changing colors, the air getting cooler, football on Saturdays, and lots of other things that make this my favorite season.

6. Favorite Way to Relax

Favorite way by myself: Settin’ in the woods or on the water watching nature come by. Hard to beat that getting-away-from-it-all feeling I get whenever I get the chance. Hope to pass that feeling along to my children someday. Favorite way with others: Vacationing with the family. Don’t really matter where, either.

7. What was your favorite candy as a kid?

Anything with chocolate and caramel. Always fondest of the Marathon bar. Don’t think they even make those any more…

8. It’s a cold winter day, you’re home alone. Now what?

Put on a pair of shorts and a sweatshirt. Wrap up in a blanket. Find some sort of sports on TV. Take a nap. Might even skip step #3…

Well, those are my answers. Feel free to share what yours would be. Hope you’re enjoying the 80’s music.

Y’all have a good’n!

More Music Stuff

2010-07-27T23:50:00.001-05:00

As some of you know, started posting song lyrics on Twitter and Facebook every morning. Some have specific meanings, some are just for fun. So, been thinking a lot about music lately (not that I ever really stop). Got a few things thought I’d share with y’all. Maybe you’ll agree, maybe you won’t. Don’t really matter. That’s why there’s lot of choices on your radio dial. But, if you’re curious what’s in the deep, dark recesses of my mind, let’s get started, a-one, and-a two, and a-three:

Know I’ve said this before and it really sounds a little crazy, but think The Police are really underrated by a lot of folks. Every time I post lyrics from them, always get a reply from someone, usually bout how much they love The Police and their songs. Yet, whenever a best-of list comes out, you rarely see their name on there, or, if you do, it’s way down the list. They are the only band who’s elicited a response every time I’ve posted a lyric by them. Just seems odd that they rarely get mentioned in the rarified air of the all-time greats;
Whenever I hear “Eruption/You Really Got Me” by Van Halen now, always think about our trip to Sea World last year. They played this song during their finale in the Saturday night show. Actually had a live guitarist play Eddie’s parts and he was purty awesome. That was one of the best vacations we have ever taken and probably ever will. These songs will bring back warm memories for me from now until I can’t remember no more;
A Twitter friend of mine, @sharongooner, took a poll for the best frontman and frontwoman in rock history. Freddie Mercury won for the men with 21 votes. Next closest person was Morrissey with 10. And, just to prove my point on The Police, out of 145 votes cast for men, no one, and I mean NO ONE, voted for Sting. Ironically enough, means I didn’t either. Voted for Freddie and Bonn Scott (who tied for 5th along with David Byrne, Mick Jagger, and Michael Stipe with 5 votes each.) Debbie Harry won the female vote. Out of over 75 votes cast, she received 24 of them. Next closest was Karen O (?) with 6 votes. I voted for Debbie and Chrissie Hynde, who was alone in third with 5 votes. Can’t argue with the overall results. Thought they turned out pretty well. Did show me there’s a lot of singers I’ve never heard of. Reckon I need to branch out more. If you’re interested in reading the blog, you can click on this link: sharongooner. She also has the results of a poll she took on best guitarist ever. Oddly enough, the two people I voted for in that poll also finished first and tied for fifth. Strange…;
The Deadliest Catch team played some awesome music during the whole Captain Phil saga. Thom Beers’ choice to play Johnny Cash’s “Redemption Day” during the montage representing Captain Phil’s death was flat-out pure genius. His choice of “All Roads Lead Home” by Golden State for the memorial sequence was awesome, too. Can’t say I’d ever heard either song before then, but each was the perfect choice for the situation. The episode where the crews find out about his death is on right now. Getting goosebumps and this is the third time I’ve seen it…anyway, I digress ;
On the subject of depressing things, every time I hear a Nirvana or INXS song, think about how sad it is that both lead singers are no longer with us due to their own hands. Don’t think anyone was surprised to find out Kurt Cobain had some real demons circling around in his head. Imagine most folks were surprised at how he decided to silence them, though. Have heard several theories about Michael Hutchen’s death. No matter what led to it, it’s still sad such a talent ended that way;
On a happier note, read that Roger Waters and David Gilmour had a on-stage reunion the other day. Needless to say, the crowd was stunned when Mr. Gilmour walked out on stage. They were the classic yin and yang pair of musicians. Roger knows how to tell a story with lyrics and David can weave quite the tale with the guitar. Not sure how long the reconciliation will last this time around, but hope it sticks this go around.

Well, that’s all I got this time. Appreciate you taking the time to read it, especially if you made it this far. If you know who Karen O is, would appreciate if you’d drop me a note about her. Will leave you with this:

Take your time, hurry up. The choice is yours. Don’t be late. Take a rest, as a friend, as an old memory….

Until we meet again…

I’m Back

2010-07-20T00:12:00.001-05:00

Howdy, y’all. Don’t know bout you, but it’s been pretty dang hot everywhere I’ve been this summer. Definitely glad God gave someone the smarts enough to invent A/C. Know it’s been a few weeks, but have been a little busy and haven’t really had anything just felt the need to talk about. Now I’m all rested and recharged. Got a few things on my mind this week so here we go:

Travelled out to Summerlin, NV last week. Trip was great until got ready to fly home. They loaded us on the plane then decided to fill the empty seats. Trouble was, the computer was broken down so they had to fill the empty seats by hand. As a result, we were 45 minutes late leaving the gate. Now, besides the fact it was 116 outside, what’s really aggravating is they held up a plane with about 300 folks already on board just so they could put 10-15 more folks on it. This resulted in about half of us missing our connecting flights in Atlanta, and seeing as how we got to ATL after 11 pm, there were no other flights until the morning. Did I mention they were also out of hotel rooms and most of the restaurants were closed? So, they inconvenienced about 150 people for the sake of 10-15 people. Wonder how they thought that was providing good customer service? And they wonder why people get are so angry at the airline industry all the time;
Best part of my trip was getting to meet fishing legend Bill Dance. He was on my flight out to Nevada. He’s every bit the nice guy you see on TV. If you know who he is, you know he always wears a University of Tennessee ball cap. He had it on and even had one attached to his brief case for some reason. Have watched his show since I was a kid. It was a real thrill to meet him even though it took me a long time to build up the courage to talk to him;

Went to Gulf Shores, AL, a couple weeks ago. Great time to go. Hardly anyone on the beaches, free parking everywhere you went, and a short wait at Lambert’s. Media reports of the oil are greatly exaggerated (imagine that). There was some oil there but it was just a thin coat. You would think there was oil about a foot deep the way the media’s been carrying on. If you enjoy the beach, but not so much the water, you can still enjoy yourself. Many rooms have reduced rates right now, too.
Speaking of oil and the media, the local news in Mobile started each night with about 10 minutes of oil coverage. One station even had “breaking news” about every hour just in case you somehow forgot the oil was still out there. Think the worst story I saw was a 5 minute piece on a dead turtle found in the Intercoastal Waterway. At the end of the piece, they quickly mumbled something about no one knows if it’s death was related to the oil or not. Good grief. Talk about stretching for a news story. But, now that the oil has apparently been capped, the media will be able to focus on something new now…I hope. Love how President Obama took 42 days to address the nation while the oil was still flowing, but it took him less than 24 hours to speak out after it had been capped. Just sayin’…;
Mid-term elections are coming up. Wonder how many Dems will continue with the “It’s-all-Bush’s-fault” theme? Pretty sad that’s all they really have to fall back on after two years. Think the biggest disappointment to folks is the perceived lack of jobs being created as a result of the big stimulus package which was passed last year. Part of me wonders if the jobs are out there but they aren’t the ones people want. When the New Deal was passed, it created blue collar jobs. Nowadays, folks want to tell others how and where to dig the ditches instead of using the shovel themselves. Would think it’s hard to create white collar jobs out of nowhere. But, the perception is out there that the Dems are more interested in handing out unemployment checks than creating jobs. Americans always talk about being free. Have to wonder how much freedom we are giving up when we always have our hands out to the government looking for our “free money?” Got news for you, Folks, ain’t no such thing as free money. Now, there are always some folks who actually need a helping hand. Ain’t talking ‘bout them. Talking about those folks who can be independent but choose not to. And, in my mind, every time you take a handout from the government or give up a freedom to the government, you are becoming less independent. Maybe I’m wrong, though;
Anyone else watching Big Brother this summer? Pretty funny they had this big “twist” all planned out by having someone play the part of a saboteur. Bad thing was they were voted out the first week. What’s even funnier is only one person even had a notion as to who the saboteur was, but the whole group took credit for getting them voted out. Hmmm, folks taking credit for blind luck. Sounds like a bunch of politicians, don’t they? These House Guests are just about as interesting, too. We have Showtime 2 now and get to watch Big Brother After Dark this year. They haven’t really been all that interesting during the times we’ve sat down to watch them. Almost like watching C-SPAN. Hours of mindless blathering with a few good nuggets thrown in every now and then. But, still feel the need to watch although I don’t know why…;
Last week’s Deadliest Catch was the episode where Captain Phil passed on. Thought the production team handled it about as well as they could. Definitely proved why they’ve made this show as good as it is. Have said it before, but it’s hard to believe how empty people have felt for a guy (and his family) they’ve never met in person. Another sign of a great production team cause they’ve managed to let the real guy through without any embellishments. Hope you’ve pulling up lots of full pots in Heaven, Capt Phil;
Well, another real American icon passed last week, Mr. George Steinbrenner. Whether you loved him or hated him, have to admit he changed the game of baseball forever. And, you might not have liked his tactics, but he was an owner who was all about winning. Too many owners out there nowadays who only care about the bottom line. Mr. Steinbrenner also inspired one of the greatest comedy characters of all-time on Seinfeld. RIP, Big Guy…

Hope everyone is doing well out there. Appreciate you taking a few moments out of your day to read my thoughts.

Y’all have a good one!

Happy Independence Day!

2010-07-04T13:37:00.001-05:00

Below is one of the greatest speeches of all times. Even though it has been over 11 score now and it is about one specific event, the meaning behind it is just as important now as it was back in 1863 when Mr. Lincoln gave this speech. Please think of those who are fighting for us now, have fought for us in the past, and especially those who have sacrificed all so that we can enjoy the food and beverage of our choice on this day which celebrates our birth as a nation and the freedoms we continue to enjoy.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met here on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But in a larger sense we can not dedicate - we can not consecrate - we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but can never forget what they did here.

It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they have, thus far, so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. - Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln, 1863

May God bless you, your family, and the United States of America along with our allies worldwide!

Whole Lot of The Other…

2010-06-28T23:01:00.001-05:00

Haven’t been in much of a mood to blog lately, but there’s some things going on need to yak about. So, here we go:

So, did you get your iPhone4, yet? Ordered mine on the day you could pre-order them. Got one for The Mrs, too. Ours were even delivered a day early. My wife loves hers. Have been out of town so haven’t been able to use mine, yet. A friend here got his so I have been able to see one. Can’t wait to see mine. Took Apple two months to sell 1 million iPads. They’ve already sold more than 1.5 million of the iPhone4’s. In reality, it’s taken about five days to sell that many. Unbelievable. Like the man said, if you build a better mouse trap…;
Been lots of talking about the U.S. Soccer team and the World Cup. Reckon congratulations are in order for making the elimination round. Not much of a soccer fan myself. Have to admit had fun on Twitter during the U.S.–England match. Many of my English friends were cracking jokes. Best one I saw was from my bud @LordNeil who said something about the Americans showing up around 19:41. Retaliated with we just might show up in the mid 17’s or early 18’s. He came back with yes, but the English would have been around since the 14’s. Purty funny for a history geek like me. Turned out we scored our goal at the 40 minute mark. Told him reckon we really do show up in the 40’s. Guess we did OK, though, even if the English goalie pulled a Bill Buckner. Lots of Englanders got a kick out of the New York Post saying we won by tying the game. Anyway, not sure soccer/football will ever take off here in The States, though. Figure if guys couldn’t get interested when ladies were running around taking their shirts off, there’s not much hope;
That was some match at Wimbledon tween John Isner and Nicolas Mahut. 11 hours and 5 minutes total with 138 games in the final set alone. Most matches that go 5 sets probably average about 60 games for the whole match. Now, I realize they played over 3 days, but you have to have a lot of endurance to play that kind of match. Pretty amazing. Not much of a surprise that the winner of the match, Mr. Isner, lost his next match pretty quickly. Had to be worn out. But, it gave folks something to talk about and also reminded people that Wimbledon is even going on;
Lots of talking last week about General McChrystal stepping down as commander over the Afghanistan operation. Still ain’t sure if he quit or got fired. Either way, he had to go. Can’t have someone that high up in the food chain making fun of the Commander in Chief and the Vice Commander in Chief in a public forum like that. Have to give him credit for one thing, though. At least he didn’t try to squirm out of it by saying he was “quoted out of context” or anything lame like that. Or, if he did, I didn’t hear about it. Know there’s lots of folks who agreed with what he said, but just cuz folks agree with him, don’t make it right. Freedom of speech don’t apply in the military, but I sure appreciate them defending my right to have it;
Well, last Friday marked the one year anniversary of the death of a true icon, Farrah Fawcett. It was touching to see all the tributes and…what’s that you say? You only saw the ones for Michael Jackson? Yeah, me, too. Not saying they weren’t deserving. Think what makes me wonder a little is the fact his family is now trying to claim he was murdered. According to LaToya, he was murdered for his back catalogue of music. Didn’t even know she was still talking to the family. As shocking as his death was, it was a tragic accident to someone with a sad addiction. That doc may have been a nincompoop, but doubt he was purposely trying to kill the King of Pop. Just a sad, sad story;
Speaking of sad stories, The Deadliest Catch has finally gotten to Capt. Phil having his stroke. Came shortly after finding out his son Jake is an addict. Have been thinking all season that Jake was acting like an addict so wasn’t that surprised to find out he is one. Hope he gets the help he needs. In an odd way, it led to Capt Phil being in port when he had his stroke. They came in early so Jake could go to rehab. Ended up not saving Phil, but at least he had a chance. Am curious how the producers are going to handle this whole situation. Have read they are going to stretch it out over 6 episodes. Not sure how much will focus on Jake but know Capt Phil will definitely be a main focus. Hope I can make it through without crying…;
Just so I can end on a higher note: who in blue blazes is Lady Gaga and why should I care what she’s doing at Mets and Yankees games?! And, even more, why should I care what Jerry Seinfeld thinks about her?! Now, I know who she is, and I understand she’s a big star and everything, but could care less how she’s dressed at a baseball game and whether or not she was allowed in the dressing room after the game. Just stick to singing, Honey, and, put some clothes on when you’re out in public. You got the cash. Spend a little of it to help out the clothing industry if nothing else.

Y’all have a good one!

Does God Really…?

2010-06-16T21:55:00.001-05:00

A Twitter friend posted some interesting questions and comments about God the other day. They got me to thinking of some responses. Since I needed more than 140 characters to respond, thought I’d post my response here. I’ve been working on a blog along these same lines for a couple of weeks, anyway, so this gives me just another reason to go ahead with it. I’m not trying to convert anybody with these ramblings. Just putting my thoughts out there. It’s up to you to decide what you choose to take from ‘em. So, here I go:

I don't believe in the Christian God [but] I've seen enough "miracles" and heard strange stories to think that I can't deny the possibility of supernatural – To paraphrase the great mind Yoda, there either Is or Is not. There either is a God who has dominion over everything or there isn’t. There is no Christian God, Jewish God, Muslim God, Hindu God, or any other specific brand of God. There can be only one God. I choose to believe there is a God cuz I’ve seen and heard lots of things that have convinced me He is here, but I will get into that a little later;
Why do Christians automatically expect their God giving them just blessings? - Hear this question a lot, especially in the context of sports when the winner thanks God for helping them win. Don’t think Christians (and followers of other religions) think God only blesses them and their kind. After all, why would God care who wins the Super Bowl? Think people are just misunderstanding the response. To me, the response is thanking God for giving them the talent to succeed in that particular situation, which is not to say the other team has not been given the same gifts or that He has willed for the Saints to beat the Colts. Instead, these folks realize they’ve been given a gift above others. After all, lots of folks can play football in the backyard, but most of them don’t have the talent to make it in the NFL (or to play in the FIFA World Cup for my overseas friends). “Religious” people realize where this talent comes from. God gives this to them at birth, long before they’ve made the choice whether to follow God or not. It’s not just limited to Christians, either. Jews thank Yahweh. Muslims thank Allah. Christians just get more press about it cuz there are more in the high-profile sports for whatever reason. The fact you are a Christian does not necessarily grant you more blessings than others…on Earth. We’ve all seen successful people who aren’t “religious.” The greatest blessing for believers will be after they pass from this lifetime and live eternally in the Kingdom of God. Bottom line is: Christians (and others) realize where their blessings come from and like to give thanks where thanks are due.
God is guiding me everywhere right on time, but millions die in floods, diseases and natural and other disasters? Don’t think God controls my every movement or anything like that. Do I think He watches out over me? Yes, but, like any other child, I don’t always listen to Him so I do things He’s not necessarily happy about. But, just for the sake of argument, let’s say He does guide me everywhere. That still will not shield me from disasters. The world ceased being a perfect place once Adam and Eve made the decision to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. Therefore, bad things are going to happen. Could God stop them if He chose? Yes, and I believe sometimes He does, especially if He has a higher purpose for you being here. Now, that don’t mean only the bad die young. Heard a preacher say once there is no explanation why good people die before we think they should. Unfortunately in life, there are things we are just not meant to understand nor be given an answer to;
Why do I believe? (This is my question, not hers) There are many reasons why I believe. One is because I do. My heart of hearts tells me there is a Higher Being out there Who looks out over us and was gracious enough to let us be born. Christianity is the only religion which worships a savior with an empty grave. This is because Jesus conquered death by rising three days after he was killed on the cross. With all the early Christians went through to keep it going, hard to believe it would still be around if God did not exist and Jesus didn’t rise from the grave. Another is there are just too many things which had happen at the right time in the right place for us to be here for me to believe they happened by luck or coincidence. But, if you are a real pragmatist, here is something to think about: No one disputes the Bible is thousands of years old. Many believe it is inspired by what God told the writers. If you read Genesis 1, it says God created the heavens and earth. Then He created life in the oceans before creating life on the land and in the air. It also says He created the animals before He created man. Science believes this is the same order life as we know it was created in. The Bible told us about this thousands of years ago, long before scientists existed much less proved this to be true. And, for the record, have always believed Who created us and why is much more important that the actual how.

So, these are my thoughts on the matter. Like I said earlier, not trying to convert anyone. My purpose is to give you some things to think about. It’s up to you to decide whether you believe them to be true or not. If God cannot make you believe, what chance do I have? If you decide not to believe them, I will still love and respect you as a friend, and I hope you will feel the same about me.

May the Peace of the Lord be with you!

My Take

2010-06-06T21:44:00.001-05:00

Been some folks having bad PR weeks lately. Also been a few with some good PR. Am feeling the need to comment on a few of both. So, if you’re ready, proceed at the risk of your own intellect:

Some of the folks gettin’ some bad PR lately:

President Obama – Between recent losses by his political allies, a couple of candidates saying he basically tried to bribe them to drop out of the races and the whole BP mess, he’s had some rough weeks here lately. Some of it’s not his fault. Ruling parties traditionally lose seats with each progressive election after they take the White House. Promising people jobs if they’ll drop out of races, if he did have anything to do with them, is something he could have totally avoided. Not sure what I think about the whole BP situation. On the one hand, people talk about how government is getting too involved in things. Then, folks complain when they don’t. Have said before think this fell under federal jurisdiction so maybe they should have done something earlier. At the very least, Mr. President shouldn’t have waited 40+ days to say this whole thing makes him mad. Not sure what else he could have done differently, but, sometimes a leader has to look like he’s doing something even if he ain’t or it won’t do any good. I have a bigger beef with the folks who keep blaming everything on W. Bush. Nancy Pelosi even tried to blame this whole mess on Bush being cozy with the oil companies. Guess she didn’t know they are one of Obama’s biggest contributors, too. Bush has been gone for almost 2 years now. Time to stop blaming him for all your shortfalls;
BP – Now, they’ve had some real bad PR for the last 40+ days and deservedly so. What happened to that rig and the resulting spill have been real tragedies. Eleven men were killed and lots of sea life is either dying or will be. Think some of the bad stuff being said about them is going a little overboard, though. People talking about how BP don’t care about cleaning things up, saving the environment, won’t pay for anything, etc. That’s just a bunch of hooey! They’ve been trying everything they can since Day 1 to solve this mess and keep the oil from leaking out. Ain’t a company in the world that would intentionally want this kind of PR. They haven’t tried to shirk any of their responsibility in this. In fact, they are already handing out money to folks on the Gulf Coast who’ve lost jobs cuz of this whole mess. And, to all of you thinking about boycotting BP cuz of this, how bout waiting until the clean-up is over. If you stop buying from ‘em now, they might run out of money to take care of all this. Contrary to what some folks may think, only the government can create money out of nothing. Businesses can only get it from their customers. Can’t blame you for being mad at BP. Just want to give you something to think about. And, no, don’t own any BP stock that I know of;
Israel – Not really sure what they were thinking raiding that flotilla. Obama’s getting some flak over this, too, cuz he won’t make a strong statement against Israel on this. Actually think he’s doing the smart thing and waiting until more information comes out. The natural knee-jerk reaction would be to say the Israelis are completely in the wrong on this one. Have something telling me there’s more than meets the eye to this story. They either had some bad intelligence or the whole story ain’t been told, yet. Maybe they were in the wrong. Don’t know. Reckon there’ll be a lot more coming out on this before it’s all said and done;
Helen Thomas – Case you don’t know who she is, she’s a reporter who’s been in the White House press corps since Washington was president. She was asked what she thought about Israel and she said they should all go back to “Poland…or Germany…or wherever they came from.” Saw the You Tube clip myself on Twitter. Maybe she should read the Bible a every now and then to learn where the Israelites come from. Anyway, conservative pundits have jumped all over this saying it shows how daft the liberal media is. Personally, not sure why this is even a story. She may be a role model for a lot of reporters, but imagine most regular folks could care less what she says or thinks. Besides, thought she retired several years ago. Reckon it’s time for her to go back to the old hack reporters’ home;
Baseball Commissioner/Umpires – There was already some nyah-nyahing going on cuz some of the umps have had hair-triggers on ejecting people this year. Then, the whole mess with the perfect game that wasn’t cuz of a bad call by the umpire came along. Have to give the ump credit for admitting he made a bad call after he watched it on replay. Even went over to the Tiger locker room to apologize. Not many people would have done that. Think the worst thing in this whole mess is Commissioner Selig still insisting baseball won’t join the 21st Century and have instant replay apply to something other than questionable home runs. Was agin it myself for a long time but am slowly coming around to they need to get it right. Come on, Baseball, get in the game!

Now for some folks who’ve had some good PR here lately:

Armando Galarraga – In case you don’t know, he’s the pitcher who lost the perfect game cuz of the bad call. He’s handled this whole situation with a level of class that you wish more people would. He didn’t argue at all with the umpire about the call, not even in the heat of the moment. Just smiled, shook his head, and walked back to the mound. He accepted the ump’s apology by giving him a hug and telling him it’s OK. You should use him as an example to your kids how people should react to adversity. Like my wife said on Facebook, people are going to remember him more cuz of the way he reacted to not getting the perfect game than they would have if the call had been correct. Keep up the great work, Armando!;
NHL – The Stanley Cup finals have been great this year! In fact, the entire playoff season has been great. If you want to see exciting games between two evenly-matched teams with players who go all out on every play, this series is for you. Been lots of scoring and even more hard hitting. Glad the refs let them play in the finals. NBC and Vs. have done a great job covering them, too.
Dennis Hopper – Hard to say someone who just died is having a good week. But, there’s been lots of nice things said about him since his passing. He was one of my all-time favorite actors. He played a lot of roles, but my favorite was the photographer in Apocalypse Now. The most surprising thing I read was that he considered himself a Republican. This is the man who wrote Easy Rider, one of the ultimate anti-establishment movies. Go figure. Him doing those retirement fund ads makes a lot more sense to me after reading that. Rest in peace, Mr. Hopper!

All I got this time. Made it to 47 miles running last month. Not quite to my goal of 50 but I’ll take it. Hit my 2,000th tweet over the weekend. Didn’t take as long as I thought it would. My Twitter name is @scotps23. Approaching 150 followers now and always looking for more.

And that’s the news that is the news the way I see it. Y’all have a good one!

Remember Why...

2010-05-30T20:32:00.000-05:00

Hope everyone has a happy Memorial Day!

As you are cooking out, drinking your beverage of choice, and just overall enjoying your day, please take a moment to reflect on why we have Memorial Day. It is a day to honor those who have fallen defending your right to be free. There is no greater sacrifice someone can make than dying for you and your freedom.

I know this is primarily a holiday to remember American heroes, but please also remember those brave folks from other countries who have made the ultimate sacrifice at our side. We've fought beside a lot of brave allies over the years. There's also not many countries in the world that do not have at least one of their descendants in our country and/or military.

Most of all many thanks to all of our vets and their families, especially those who suffered a loss in the name of our freedom. Remember, we are free because of the brave!

God bless the men and women in the military, God bless America, and God bless you!

Thoughts on Things

2010-05-24T22:07:00.001-05:00

May’s ending on some big notes. Most reality TV shows are crowning their winners. The NBA and NHL are about to start their finals. And, Congress is about to make one final push before their summer break. Let’s just hope they do some good.

Got a few things want to talk about. Hope you’re as interested in reading about them as I am in thinking about ‘em:

Went to the grocery store and bought 8 items to the tune of $28. Not sure what’s more shocking: the fact I spent $28 on 8 items or that I “saved” $12 by using my super saver card. Now, come from a farming family and am all for farmers getting what’s owed to ‘em. But, can remember food prices going up when gas prices skyrocketed a couple years ago. Now that gas has come back down to more reasonable prices (relatively), seems like everything that went up cuz of higher delivery costs should come down, too. Doubt the farmers are seeing much from the higher prices;
Been a little over a month since oil started spilling into the Gulf of Mexico. So far the Obama administration has been content with letting BP manage the clean-up. Have to wonder why the Feds haven’t been more involved in this. Believe this is something which falls under Federal jurisdiction. As I understand it, the states control 2 miles off the coast and the Fed control out to about 200 miles. Could be wrong about that. Either way, still seems like something they should have a bigger hand in. When Katrina hit, folks were upset that the Feds didn’t step in right away when things should have been the responsibility of the city, then the county/parrish, then the state way before the Feds should have been involved. Wonder which celebrity will step out and say Obama hates fishermen and the environment? Have to wonder what would have been said if this had happened 2-3 years ago. To be fair, not really sure what they could be doing any differently. But, would like to think something would be better than nothing. Then again, we are talking about the US Gov’t…;
There’s been a lot of yakking about all the oil in the Gulf and how no one seems to care about cleaning it up. Would like to point out there were 11 men killed when the explosion happened. You just don’t hear much about them and their families. Think it’s sad no one wants to talk about them;
Looks like the Kagan hearings will start next month. The Clinton library is saying they won’t be able to get her documents they have together in time for the hearing. Wouldn’t think it would be that hard to get them together. Just go to the Kagan section. Of course, this is the same institution that said they wouldn’t be able to get any of Hillary’s documents out in time for any of her elections. Seems to be a pattern here. Anyway, short of saying Hitler and Stalin were just misunderstood, doubt anything she’s written will matter. Naturally, the Dems are behind her. From what I’m reading, the moderate Pubs support her, too. So, looks like she will be confirmed without much of a battle twixt the Left and the Right;
Arlen Spector lost his bid for the Democratic senate nomination in Pennsylvania. Serves him right in my opinion. It’s one thing when you switch cuz you believe more in the other side. Seems pretty obvious he only switched parties cuz he thought it would save his butt in the upcoming election. He was already trailing in the Republican race when he switched. Guess he was trailing on the Dem side, too. Guess you really can’t fool all of the people all of the time. Wonder how many Pubs voted in the Dem election just to vote against him?;
So, have you heard the latest out in Arizona? Appears they are searching out teachers who have heavy accents so they won’t teach English to non-English speaking students. Sure wouldn’t want someone to learn how to speak a second language from someone who had to do it themselves. As the great philosopher Mr. Bugs Bunny says, “What a bunch of maroons!” Not only is this just downright stupid, it also plays right into the hands of folks who claim their immigration bill is racist. Idiahts;
And now for some things completely different. Was a lot of discussion again about if the right person won Survivor this season. There’s no doubt Russell is a master manipulator/borderline bully. However, his scorched-earth policy leaves him no friends on the jury, who are the ultimate deciders of who wins the $1 million. Not really sure how someone who makes it to the end without making waves is any less of a survivor than the person(s) apparently pulling the strings. You have to manage to stay out of the crosshairs while building relationships with the people you are voting out. Sounds like an ultimate survivor to me. Humans are social creatures by nature so we naturally gravitate towards those who know how to make friends and turn away from those who don’t. That being said, while I am happy with Sandra winning, thought Parvati should have won. She was targeted by everyone from day one and still made it to the end. While her decision to team with Russell might have gotten her to the end, it ultimately cost her with the jury. They hated him so much they wouldn’t vote for Parvati, either. Just proves the adage bad company corrupts you more than it helps you in the end;.
Pacman turned 30 years old last week. (And, am talking about the video game, not the football player.) Hard to imagine that was cutting-edge technology back then, especially when you consider how realistic video games are today. Was never very good at it myself. Was more partial to Asteroids and Zaxxon. Still…Happy birthday, Pacman!!!;
Ran almost 67 miles in April. So far, have only run about 27 miles in May. Don’t think I’ll make 67 this month. Can probably make close to 50 before June rolls around. Will just have to see.

That’s all I got for now. Hope y’all have a great week.

I’m out!

Misfiring Synapses

2010-05-17T12:47:00.001-05:00

Hola! Got some random things to comment on. Kind of passionate about one or two of ‘em. The others, well, just need to get the voices out of me head. So, if you’re ready, here we go:

Been trying to make good on learning Spanish to read the tweets from a couple folks I follow. (Hi, @GadgetCLo and @MacoElenita!) Took Spanish in college and learned a little more while I was working in Miami after Hurricane Andrew. Still remember some Espanol and can occasionally pick up the gist of what they’re saying. Just completely lost on some others and resort to Google to help me with it. Try to write in Spanish every now and then. Always had trouble with tenses and syntax and probably still do. Imagine they probably just laugh and are too polite to comment on my ineptitude. @ingek73 has even started teaching me a little Dutch. Some words I can figure out from what little German I remember from high school, but that ain’t many. Doubt I’ll ever be fluent in either language, but, if I can get to where can half-way read ‘em, that’ll be a start;
So, President Obama has named his choice for the Supreme Court, one Ms. Elena Kagan. Now, I’ve heard a lot of things people are concerned about. Some of them may be legitimate. ‘Tis true she has liberal leanings, has no experience as a judge, and very little paper trail for people to investigate. These might bother you depending on what you think makes for a quality Supreme Court justice. However, there’s one thing people are diving into which I think has absolutely no bearing on how she will be as a judge: is she or isn’t she a lesbian? Can anyone tell me why we should care about this? There’s gay folks on both sides of the proverbial aisle. So, whether she is or not should in no way determine if she’s qualified for the court. Yes, the Bible says homosexuality is an abomination before God. But, it also says it is not for us to judge others. That is for The Big Guy to do whenever and however He sees fit. There might not even be anything for Him to judge on this. Have said it before and will say it again, got quite a few gay friends (and several I suspect) but could care less about it. Far as I can remember, we’ve never even talked about it after they told me. Sort of our own don’t ask, don’t tell policy, I reckon. I love them just as much as my straight friends and, if for some reason we ever have a falling out, their sexuality will have nothing to do with it. Anywho, I digress. There’s lots of things to debate on this lady. Let’s leave her sexuality out of it;
Been reading some nyah-nyahing about the fact Eric Holder, the US Attorney General, has been criticizing the Arizona immigration bill without actually reading it. This coming from some of the same folks who criticized the healthcare reform bill and lots of other things. Highly doubt they actually read those bills. Guess that’s OK since they were the ones doing the criticizing. Fact of the matter is, people comment on stuff they don’t know about all the time (myself included), and ain’t a thing in the world wrong with it, either. Heck, people vote on stuff they don’t understand all the time. Bottom line is, let him who is without sin cast the first stone. Think I hear a lot of stones dropping out there. So, if you’re going to criticize him for commenting on something without reading it first, you better be sure you’ve read everything you criticize, too. And, summaries on-line or in the newspapers don’t count;
Been some yammering in the sports pages about Brian Cushing, the 2009 NFL defensive rookie of the year, testing positive for a performance enhancing drug masking agent last year. The AP was so “enraged” it decided to revote on the award. Find it hard to believe there were no rumors out about this out there when they were voting last year. These guys hear things all the time they don’t report on. Someone probably talked last year about something this big. And, he didn’t even test positive for a PED, just the masking agent, which turns out to be produced naturally by the human body. Think most people could care less about the whole mess. It’s not very shocking when an NFL player tests positive for anything like this. Most folks figure it just ain’t natural for people to be as big as the players are without some sort of chemical help. Comes across as a bunch of hollow indignation by the sports media guys. Gives ‘em something to talk about, I reckon;
Been bad and haven’t run in almost a week. @FitBottomedGirl posted an interesting question on her blog, fitbottomedgirls.com, about whether exercise affects your mood or not. Not really sure it affects my mood or not. I’m purty even-keeled for the most part regardless of what’s going on. But, sometimes can find solutions to things while I’m out running. Maybe running helps me relax or just have to think about something during all that time. Have quite a few friends who tell me they can feel their nerves changing when they haven’t exercised in a while. So, maybe there’s something to it for some folks.

Well, that’s all I’m gonna write about for now. Have some comments on the outcome of Survivor: Heroes vs. Villians, but will save those for later in case someone DVR’d it and ain’t had a chance to watch it.

Dankjewel!

Tschuss!

Are You Serious?!!!

2010-05-10T23:30:00.002-05:00

Got several things to talk about that just make me want to say “are you serious?” Warning, some of these are just things I need to get off my chest so I can start focusing on other things. But, try to end on a brighter note. So, just going to jump right into ‘em:

Saw a video of an Hispanic UCLA professor ranting about the United States and immigration. Among the things he said were Americans are against Hispanics coming to the US cuz we’re scared they’re going to take over. He also called for Hispanic people to revolt within the United States. Now, got several problems with this dude and his so-called logic. First, any American who is against LEGAL immigration is an idiot (Native Americans excepted). There’s not a single person in this country who is not either an immigrant or the descendant of an immigrant (again, Native Americans excepted). Americans are not scared Hispanic people are going to take over. People of Hispanic origin are elected to public office, run businesses, etc all the time. Most citizens are grateful LEGAL immigrants are coming here. What most Americans are opposed to are ILLEGAL immigrants. We have rules. Follow them. Lots of other people followed them and they are now legal citizens of the US. To me, they should be the most upset with the ILLEGAL immigrants cuz they want to shortcut the rules the LEGAL ones followed. The second thing I’m opposed to with this dude is he is calling for an open revolt against the US government. That could be considered treason cuz he ain’t talking about taking over through the ballot box. Should probably post the video but have spent enough time on the idiaht. Which leads me to my next topic…;
Saw where 5 students were disciplined for wearing American flag t-shirts and bandanas to school on Cinco de Mayo. School officials said they were incendiary. So, you’re telling me displaying the American flag in the United States of America is an act of hostility? That is RIDICULOUS!!! When the school board said the school officials were wrong for punishing the boys, 200 Mexican students walked out of school in protest. Now, I understand Cinco de Mayo is a Mexican day of celebration for a military victory over the French, and it’s something Mexican people should be very proud of. However, you are in America now, not Mexico. America celebrates lots of holidays which came with immigrants from other countries, and, by all means, please continue to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. However, please keep in mind, if you are going to choose to live in the United States, become a citizen, and take advantage of all the benefits of living here, you should respect the laws and customs of the country you are living in. And, in our country, people have the freedom to display the flag any time they want to (please see the 1st Amendment under the part about “freedom of speech”). Not to be rude, but, if you don’t like it, you always have the choice to go back where you came from or find another country to go to. All right, enough of that soap box;
Comedy Central is developing a show about Jesus. As they used to say on Malcolm in the Middle, “This…will end….badly.” Right now the premise is going to be Jesus is now living in New York City and is having a difficult time adjusting to the modern times and God is too busy with other things to help Him. Now, when God, The Devil and Bob came out, people were in an uproar, and you could make the argument that show was based on the book of Job in the Bible. Do they really think there won’t be a real uproar over their show which will have no Biblical basis? Part of me thinks this is being thrown out there cuz they’ve recently been in trouble with the Muslim world over Muhammad being in an episode of South Park. I don’t know. Just don’t see how this show will have any chance of making it, at least I hope it won’t;
Pretty odd what happened with the stock market last week. Dove about 900 points in an hour, possibly cuz someone hit a ‘B’ instead of an ‘M’ on a keyboard, changing a stock sale from millions of shares to billions. The whole stock market went into a tizzy cuz of the sell-off. At least, that’s what they think happened. No one really knows. Maybe our recovery is not as strong as some politicians would like us to believe. Wall Street reminds me of the stories you hear about how a buffalo herd would stampede cuz of a shadow. Pretty scary to think a large part of our economy is based on a system which decides how it will spend its money based on whether Geither scratches with his left or right hand when he gets up in the morning;
The former Chastity Bono is now officially Charles Bono. OK. So, what makes this such a big news story? He’s only famous for being the child of Cher and Sonny Bono. Maybe it’s cuz people thought he/she was so cute on his/her few appearances on the Sonny and Cher Show and still remember that. I don’t know. If Chastity decides to go through with being Charles, that’s her/his decision to make in a private setting. Could care less about it myself and it shouldn’t be played out in the national media;
Sad to hear Lena Horne died. Hate to admit all I really know about her is she was a singer/actress and Fred G. Sanford had a big crush on her. In reading about her today, she was a real civil rights pioneer. RIP, Ms. Lena;
All right, now that I’ve brought everybody down, time to liven things up a little. As of right now, I have 112 followers on Twitter. Even got included in my first list this week. (Thanks @flaysomewench!) Hit 1,000 tweets, too. Been lots of chattering about the British elections this week. Been some pretty good jokes on Twitter about the whole mess so that’s one positive…for me, anyway. One of the coolest things which happened this week was having a chat with @TheChristinaKim, the LPGA star. Talked about restaurants in Mobile, AL, which is where the LPGA is stopping this week. She doesn’t follow me, yet, but maybe some day…;
Tigger’s catching a lot of grief for pulling out, er, withdrawing, er, quitting during the TPC this weekend allegedly cuz of a bulging disk in his neck. One female commentator on the Golf Channel reported live on the air he left cuz of a “bulging d*#%.” Whoops!!! Talk about a slip of the tongue! Guess the jokes were out there pretty quickly. Anyway, if he really is having neck problems, could be from stress. Been known to happen to folks. And, now that he’s “cured,” reckon he doesn’t have a way to release all that tension, anymore. Reckon his game will suffer until there’s some kind of conclusion with Elin one way or the other. Has to be difficult for him waiting on the other shoe to drop. Hard to feel sorry for him, though, when he’s got no one to blame but himself. Don’t mean he should be judged by us, just hard to feel any empathy for him;
Ended up running 66.9 miles in April, which is more than I ran from November to March combined. Am up to 6-7 miles on most of my runs now. If someone would have told me I’d be running that far a month ago, would have told 'em you’re nuts. Have somehow managed to still gain 4 pounds, though. Can’t figure that one out…

Well, thanks for letting me vent. Hope to be a little more upbeat next time.

Y’all have a nice day!

Synapses Gapses

2010-05-04T22:55:00.001-05:00

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!

What a Bunch of …

2010-04-29T22:14:00.001-05:00

Been an OK week so far. Weather’s been nice. Pollen is gone (for the most part). And, been some interesting things in the news. Have a veritable smorgasbord of topics to cover this time. See if you can stretch your imagination to figure out the common theme. Hope you enjoy:

Did you hear about Boobquake? Seems an Iranian cleric said we are having all these earthquakes cuz women ain’t covering up like he thinks they should. So, some American lady started a movement on Facebook for women to show a little cleavage so folks could test that theory. It quickly spread onto other outlets such as Twitter. Even saw a story on several of CNN’s outlets. Not sure how many people really participated in it, but it’s amazing how quickly things like the color of women’s bras and exposed cleavage on Facebook get coverage in the mainstream media. Talk about titillating coverage. Anyway, last time I checked, still haven’t been any major earthquakes cuz of it. Maybe y’all should try again. Uh, in the name of science, of course;
Seems KFC is selling chicken in pink buckets to advertise the fact they are making a big donation to the Susan G Komen Foundation, a great and wonderful cause. Should be noted, money is NOT being donated based on each individual purchase. They are just making a big donation. Anyway, some group I’ve never heard of came out this week saying KFC is taking advantage of poor people and the SGK Foundation, a great and wonderful cause, shouldn’t be attaching their name to something unhealthy like fried chicken. Guess they haven’t heard KFC sells grilled chicken now. Anyway, think the most absurd statement I saw from the group I’ve never heard of was “poor people can’t help it if they don’t make healthy choices” or something to that effect. As the late great Lewis Grizzard used to say, “Do what?” Now, I know healthy food does tend to cost more than not-so-healthy food. But, there are affordable healthy choices, too. And, funny how people in the Great Depression weren’t pushing 250. Besides, last time I checked, the grilled chicken at KFC is the same cost as the fried. To me, this is just another case of a group you’ve never heard of trying to take advantage of something to get a little free publicity. If you don’t like it, don’t buy it;
Lane Bryant recently produced a TV ad for lingerie which several networks said was a little too racy to be aired during the “family hour” of TV. Saw the ad on another blog site (thanks for posting it, Sue Mac) and don’t think it was worse than anything else you’d see on network TV nowadays. Actually liked it more cuz the models are a lot more realistic. Better lookin’ to me, too. Anyway, lots o’ folks are speculating it was turned down because the women in the ads ain’t what you normally see in these types of ads. Personally, just cuz they show the other ads, don’t mean they should be, especially in the so-called “family hour.” But, if they are going to show the size 0’s, they should show the size 10’s (and larger), too. Wouldn’t feel too sorry for Lane Bryant, though. They got a lot more publicity out of the free media coverage than they would have by paying for the ad time. Maybe there was a method to their mad-ness…;
Speaking of free publicity, Apple sure got a lot of it after the prototype for the latest iPhone was left in a bar. Totally on “accident,” of course. This case may end up solving a lot of issues. First, were lots of rumors out there about the new phone before and this has answered a lot of ‘em. Second, was this really an accident? Some folks think the dude who left the phone may have planted it as a free market test. Eh, maybe, maybe not. Third, the question of whether bloggers are considered media or not may be resolved once and for all. Seems there’s a California law which says members of the media cannot be forced to give up their confidential sources. There’s been all kinds of search warrants and police questioning trying to find out who found the phone and sold it to the bloggers who broke the story. The bloggers say they are members of the media so they should be exempt from all this harassment. Imagine we will be hearing about this stunt for years to come. If we are considered media folks, where can I send my request for media credentials to the Super Bowl and the Masters?;
Reckon you’ve heard about the immigration bill passed by the State of Arizona. Lots of folks ain’t necessarily agreeing with the new law. Do believe there is cause for concern that legal citizens could be subject to random questioning by the police. What I can’t understand is why folks are concerned about the rights of the ILLEGAL immigrants? They are not exactly law-abiding citizens since they are in the US ILLEGALLY. Would think people who came here legally would have the most to gripe about, too. Why should someone who entered ILLEGALLY have the same rights of someone who did it the right way? Think most folks seem to be missing the other point that Arizona passed the law cuz the Feds won’t do anything about ILLEGAL immigration reform. Do I think the Arizona legislature made a wise choice? Probably not. In the end, guessing the courts will overturn the law based on the 4th amendment. Can’t just stop a citizen without due cause. Last time I checked, the way you looked ain’t considered due cause, either. At least it better not be;
Been a lot of chatter about Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of Great Britain, calling some lady a bigot the other day while leaving a photo op for the upcoming election. Apparently he forgot he was still wearing a wireless microphone. Naturally, the media heard the comment and immediately put it out for everyone else to hear. He’s now apologized twice and some reports say the lady has even forgiven him for the comment. Think this is much ado bout nothin’ myself. Politicians are human just like everyone else. They have their opinions and biases just like everyone else. They should be entitled to make ignoramus comments just like the next guy, too. One poll said 90% of those asked said this won’t affect the way they will vote. Reckon the media has to have something to yak about. Some things I’ve read indicate he wasn’t too far off with his comment, but would still suck for him to call me a bigot whether I deserved it or not. Think he was already behind in the polls so not sure this will cost him the election. Purty sure it won’t help, though.

Well, that’s all I got for now. Were you able to figure out the theme? You may have to think literally and figuratively on this one.

Y’all take care.

More Musical Memories

2010-04-25T10:50:00.001-05:00

Music is such a wonderful thing. It helps us feel good, wallow in our sorrows, feel better, think about stuff, and a wide variety of other things. Music can even take you back to specific moments in time. Thought I’d share more of my musical memories with you. Maybe they’ll trigger some of yours, too. Will list them by song title and the artist most famous for performing them:

Ring of Fire (Johnny Cash) – Ah, the “Down, Down” song. That’s what my kids called it when they were around 3 years old. We’d get in the truck and they’d want to hear the “Down, Down” song. They pretty much liked all of Mr. Cash’s songs, but usually asked for this one in particular. Could tell they were going to have a real appreciation for music;
Sir Duke and Over the Rainbow (Stevie Wonder/Judy Garland) – Marching band, freshman year of high school. Enjoyed my four years in the band, but will always think of this one as the best. Had some real characters that year, and we were pretty good if I have to say so myself. Can still see a fellow trombone player flipping over backwards cuz he was trying to play real loud during one performance. Good times…;
Piano Man (Billy Joel) – Saw him in concert during his Nylon Curtain tour. My bud Jimmy and I were sitting about halfway up in the balcony at the back of the arena. Jimmy said he was amazed cuz Billy was making the harmonica sounds with just his mouth. Pointed out he was actually using the harmonica he’d put around his neck. The lady sitting next to me let us borrow her binoculars to confirm it. Purty funny. And, yes, we were completely sober. Really miss talking to Jimmy. He’s still alive. Just don’t get to talk to him;
Comfortably Numb (Pink Floyd) – You may remember listed this last time. But, have another memory associated with this song, too. One morning when Mr. Mayhall was late…again…was listening to this with Ronnie, Jud and Sean in Ronnie’s car. When the little piano plink representing the pin prick played (wow, look at that alliteration), Jud reached up and flicked Ronnie on the ear. I know, an odd thing to remember, but it’s in there;
Bridge over Troubled Water (Simon and Garfunkel) – Was listening to this song on the radio and had to get out before it ended. Drove me so crazy not being able to hear the ending had to go buy it on tape. True story;
Wild, Wild West (Kool Mo Dee) – This song may shock some of you. But, used to listen to it when I would go out onto the Wesley Foundation balcony to watch the nightlife on the Tuscaloosa strip. Saw some purty wild things…Also listened to Bon Jovi, Stevie Wonder, and several other bands while out there;
Riders on the Storm ( The Doors) – Was listening to my walkman radio while writing a paper one night in college. This song came on and swear could feel raindrops falling on the back of my neck. Pretty eerie feeling which was cool all at the same time. And, yes, again, was completely sober;
Photograph (Def Leppard) – First real heavy metal song I ever liked and among the earliest music videos can remember seeing on MTV when we first got it. Still remember the air band competition from high school. The dudes that did this song won the whole thing and deservedly so;
Cult of Personality (Living Colour) – Saw them on Saturday Night Live. Still see Corey Glover slinging his braids around during the guitar solo every time I hear it on my iPod. Awesome song wrapped around a pretty good history lesson. Almost bought tickets to the Stones concert just to see these guys open for them;
Sweet Home Alabama (Lynyrd Skynyrd) – Way back when I was in school, they used to play this before every Bama home game. May still do. I don’t know. Anyway, the entire student section would keep the beat with our shakers. An awesome sight for this Tide fan;
Jump (Van Halen) – Chicago Cubs baseball back in the 80’s. Every time I hear it still expect Harry Caray to come on and say,”Hello again, everybody! It’s a great day for baseball!” when the music fades away;
I Melt with You (Modern English) – Can see that couple dancing in the video every time I hear that song. Still haven’t been able to figure out if the blonde guitarist in the white shirt was male or female;
Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana) – Have always liked the song even though have never understood the lyrics. Can hardly figure out what Kurt Cobain is singing but they still don’t make much sense when I read them. Finally figured out a couple of weeks ago they’re not supposed to make sense cuz the teenage mind quickly jumps from thought to thought, at least it did when I was one. That’s what I think, anyway. Only took me 20 years to come up with that theory. I’m such a gueenius…

Well, hope this list triggered some memories in you, even if you thought of some different songs. Will probably be a part three sometime. The hard part will be picking the soundtrack for this blog. Too much to choose from…

Y’all have a good one.

Sporadic Thoughts

2010-04-22T22:02:00.001-05:00

Well, the pollen has finally died down a little where I’m at, and that makes me happy. Was actually able to wear my contacts all day today. Woo-hoo!!! Hope it’s better where you’re at, too.

Not really much going on in the news which interests me, but have a few things rattling around in me noodle that need to come out. So, if you’re ready, here we go:

Started posting song lyrics on Twitter and Facebook this week. Most of the time they reflect my mood and/or different thoughts going through me brain. Sometimes I’m just being silly. Always enjoy it when someone continues the lyrics. Only had one response which threw me a little. Anyway, if you follow me on Twitter or on Facebook, hope you are enjoying them and/or recognize most of the songs. Due to character limits on Twitter, don’t usually credit the artist, but, if you want to know, feel free to ask. And, if you’re curious enough about the trainwreck, you can follow me on Twitter @scotps23;
Have told y’all before about my European tweeps. Think what fascinates me the most is they tend to have actual conversations using Twitter. Don’t see that much from my American tweeps. Americans just tend to throw their thoughts out there but not comment on others. Least not what I can see. Not really sure why, either. Maybe it’s unique to the folks I follow. Or, maybe folks just think I’m boring. Don’t know. Anyway, it’s a lot of fun to watch their conversations ebb and flow throughout the day;
Well, now that the airline industry lost billions cuz of the volcanic ash, the blame game has begun over who’s idea it was to ground the planes. Believe you should always err on the side of caution when it comes to air safety. Bottom line is no one really knew what, if any, effect the ash would have on the planes. In the end, you have to ask yourself what’s worse, being inconvenienced or dead if you crash? How would you like to be the airline executive who made the decision to fly when the plane crashes?;
Been a lot of stuff out there about this whole Goldman Sachs mess. Folks getting all excited cuz President Obama took almost a million smackers from them. Well, they gave money to just about everyone on both sides of the aisle. Someone asked if Mr. Prez was going to give it back. He basically said no cuz it was from the employees rather than the company itself (long story how that is but true from what I’m reading). Who in their right mind would think a politician would ever give that kind of dough back? Anyway, his administration still appears poised to go after them fer now. We shall see. What concerns me more is the fact the Goldman Sachs indictment (or whatever it was) conveniently came out just as they are starting to make a push for Wall Street reform, whatever that means. Nothing like using the judicial system to push your political agenda. Of course, they are saying the timing is all just coincidental. Uh-huh. Whatever…Will just have to wait and see what happens;
The Stanley Cup playoffs have been pretty awesome so far! Lots of overtime games. Even the ones that don’t go to OT have been pretty close. The Stanley Cup commercials have been pretty good, too. Have forgotten just how exciting playoff hockey can be. Best thing about OT in the playoffs (other than the excitement of wondering which shot will be the last) is no TV timeouts;
Been lots of hullaballoo about the NFL draft this week. Hard to believe they are devoting an entire night of primetime just to the 1st round. Guess it will REALLY be big time if it ever lands on a major network, not that ESPN is a slouch to be on. Actually know some people who are going out of their way to watch them. Will follow it close enough to see where my fellow Bama alums are going, but not much more than that;
Peace reigns where God is present. Peace reigns when Love is present. Simple formula then: Where you have Love and God, you find Happiness – Posted on Twitter by Billy Corgan. Billy Corgan? Of Smashing Pumpkins fame? Yep, that one. Have always liked him;
In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on. - Robert Frost

Y’all think about it…

A Little Mish-Mash

2010-04-17T22:45:00.001-05:00

You’re not just reading the blog of any half-brained nitwit. You’re reading the blog of a half-brained nitwit who was quoted in Cory McCartney’s NASCAR article on SI.com this week. Who says having a little redneck in your blood don’t pay off every now and then? Anywho…

Got some thoughts on a few topics this week. So, here we go:

My son called me today and the first words out of his mouth were, “I luuuuv youuuuu!” just like his momma does from time to time. Knew right away they either wanted to buy something or had already bought something. After much hemming and hawing, he finally fessed up they’d bought another cat. Black cat by the name of Zoe. Makes three cats in less than a year. Could have been worse. Figured they would have bought one already. Wonder what took ‘em so long?;
May have seen a friend of mine posted a comment ‘bout me taking up for both President Obama and Sen. Chuck Schumer in my last post. What can I say? Even a broke clock is right twice a day. Well, the ones that actually have a face, anyway. Besides, wouldn’t be right for me to criticize folks for not seeing both sides have some good points if I didn’t acknowledge when someone is right myself. Or should that be left?;
Reckon you’ve heard about all the volcanic ash over in Europe. Somethin’ else! Travel plans getting ruined all over the world. Even President Obama had to cancel his trip to the Polish president’s funeral cuz of it. Someone tweeted it’s a good time to be filming shows set in the Middle Ages cuz won’t have to worry about airplane contrails being in the background. Now, that’s the power of positive thinking. Anyway, read this volcano is considered a small one. Hate to see what will happen when a big one finally goes off;
This is a great time of year to be a sports fan. Baseball’s going strong, the NFL draft is coming up, the NBA playoffs are starting up, and, best of all, the Stanley Cup playoffs have started. Been watching them this week. Forgot just how exciting playoff hockey really is. You should drop by VS tv one night and check it out. If you are lucky enough to catch an overtime game, you might just be hooked for life. And, if it’s a game 7 in overtime, you definitely will be;
Read today that Peter Angelos, the owner of the Baltimore Orioles, refuses to hire Cal Ripken, Jr, an Oriole legend to say the least, to help out with the ball club. Says he doesn’t want to ruin Ripken’s legacy if it doesn’t work out. Also allegedly said he doesn’t want Ripken to get the credit if they finally start winning. That’s a shame. Just goes to show Mr. Angelos is not about the team winning. He’s all about himself winning. Very sad. Think Ripken is one of the classiest players who ever played the game. Never wanted him to break Gehrig’s record. But, when I saw how classy he was in finally breaking it, became one of his biggest fans. He was the reason I came back to baseball after the strike. Still get goosebumps every time I think about him taking that victory lap. Even saw him at Epcot in 1996 but wouldn’t go talk to him cuz he’s so classy didn’t want to bother him while he was with his family. Sure hope Angelos changes his mind. Imagine a lot of Orioles fans do, too;
Get to listen to Pandora when I work on Saturdays. It is TOTALLY AWESOME!!!!! Have three stations: Guns ‘N’ Roses, Pink Floyd, and Nirvana. Used to have Metallica but some of the songs were too hard even for me. In case you’re not familiar with Pandora, you choose a band you like then it programs songs for that channel based on songs in the same general category. Although, have heard the Beatles on both Pink Floyd and Nirvana and Led Zepplin on all three. Pretty amazing if you ask me. The station plays that band about every third song or so, sometimes even sooner. Highly recommend you check it out if you haven’t already. You may ask why not just listen to your iPod? Well, you got me there except you may hear songs on Pandora not on your iPod. Still purty cool. Don’t cost a dime, either;
A lot of folks I follow on Twitter are European. Mostly British and Irish but some others thrown in there, too. Pretty interesting to follow their conversations. Been a lot of talk about the volcano ash this week, naturally. But, it gets really interesting whenever there’s a football game being played. (That would be soccer to those of us on this side of The Pond.) Seems like they all are watching it. Same thing when Britain’s Got Talent is on. (You know, that’s the show Susan Boyle got famous on). Have been some interesting political discussions, too. Sometimes I have to ask for clarification on a few topics and they are always nice enough to provide the extra explanation this dumb American needs to follow along. It really is a small world after all;
Gotta couple new blog links to the left. One by Girl Gone Healthy (follow each other on Twitter) and the other by Forevafit. Ms. Forevafit just started following my blog today. Not sure how she got here, but welcome! Checked out her blog. It’s still in the developing stages but looks pretty neat! Ms. Healthy’s does, too. Both are related to fitness. Know you will probably enjoy both just as much as I will;
Special shout out to my friend Sue Mac! She has several blogs over to the left, too. She ran a 15k race this weekend that bills itself as the toughest run in the South. Has two hills in it that must be killerz cuz everyone she talked to about it told her to walk up the hills, even the dude who signed her up. You know those jokers have to be bad!!! Well, she managed to finish in under two hours. Pretty good considering she just started training for it last week. Congrats, Sue Mac! And, no, I’m not gonna run in it next year…probably;

Well, that’s all I got for now. Appreciate you hanging in here with me. Y’all have a great weekend. Looks like I will be out buying some new running shoes myself. Wore the tread off of the old ones doin’ all my runnin’!!! Woo-hoo!!!

Y’all keep ‘em straight out there!

More Gapses in the Synapses

2010-04-13T22:28:00.001-05:00

Been some great weather where I am, but the pollen is still thick as all get-out. Driving my eyes nuts, especially when wearing my contacts. The more I blink, the more my eyes feel gummy. Yuck! Anyway, have some more random thoughts to share this week. Hope they interest you:

The White House press corps got its panties in a wad this week cuz President Obama broke protocol and slipped off without them one afternoon. This was the first time in about a bajillion years that a president has done that. Oh, the horror!!! It’s “protocol,” in other words, tradition, not the law, that the press goes with him everywhere. Know he’s the most powerful man in the world and all that, but he should be allowed to sneak out every now and then. So, just exactly where was he going? Turns out he was going to watch his daughters play soccer. Shame on him for not wanting the press to disrupt their game!;
Speaking of the press, if you want to see how fickle they can be, hope you’ve paid attention to the Masters coverage over the last week. Starting last Monday, Tigger was just about the only golfer they would talk about. Thursday through Saturday you would have thought he was leading the tournament with all the coverage he was getting, and Thursday two legends of the game were leading when the day was through! Now that he didn’t win, the press is talking about how horrible he played, he shouldn’t have played, Elin wasn’t there, etc. Folks, he came in tied for fourth after not playing competitively for five months. Pretty dang impressive to me, and y’all may recall ain’t exactly one of his biggest fans. Just another example of how the press builds folks up just to tear ‘em back down. Oh, by the way, congratulations, Phil, for winning!;
Very sad what happened to the Polish government over the weekend. Shows why our leadership and most big corporations won’t let all their powerbrokers fly together. Sad thing about this is it could have been avoided. The pilot totally ignored the air tower’s warning not to land. Very sad;
The Vatican sort of apologized for statements they’ve made about the Beatles in the past. Made it in their newspaper while commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Beatles’ last album. Probably goes without saying the Vatican was not happy when John Lennon said they were more popular than Jesus. Anyway, someone asked Ringo what he thought of the apology. He basically said they have more important things to do than apologize to the Beatles. Don’t think he was trying to slam the Vatican. He was just trying to keeps things in perspective. Guess he felt he and Paul moved on long ago so they should, too. In the grand scheme of things, he’s right. Gotta love that man!;
An update to an earlier observation. Senator Charles Schumer, D-NY, said he was going to introduce legislation outlawing airlines charging for carry-on luggage. Now, can probably count on one hand and cut off some fingers the number of times I’ve agreed with Chuck on anything, but glad to see him come out against the airlines trying to pull this crap. Fly quite a bit and see all these yahbos try to carry half their house onboard, but they really are the exception. No need to punish the rest of us cuz of these knuckleheads. Stick with it, Chuck! Guess I’d better sew a finger back on, too;
A friend of mine is a school nurse. Said a little girl was sick enough to check out of school but didn’t want them to call her mother cuz “Mommy’s job is very important” or something to that effect. Not passing judgment on the momma (could be she’s a single parent with 2 or 3 jobs), but it really struck a nerve with me. Makes me worry that my kids might think the same thing about me. Hope my kids don’t ever think they can’t call me when I’m working, especially if there’s an emergency;
Have read Kitty Kelley is releasing an unauthorized biography of Oprah. Thing is, none of the usual talk shows want to help pimp it cuz they’re scared of Oprah. That’s pretty sad if you ask me. But, with as wacky as some of her followers are, they probably won’t buy the dern thing no matter who’s trying to sell it. Will probably get more pub this way, anyhow;
Have really been enjoying Twitter. (I’m @scotps23) Have made lots of comments to folks but haven’t received many back. Oh well, it’s still fun. Am following a few celebs but don’t expect any of them to follow me back or even comment on my occasional comments to them. Rick Harrison of Pawn Stars started following me this week. He actually followed me first. Think it’s cuz one of my tweets was about the show. Pretty cool! Have “met” some neat people on there. Speaking of which…;
Know some of you are health conscious. You might be interested in one of my new blog links from the Chubby Chick. Follow each other on Twitter. Anyway, she’s blogging about her journey to lose weight. She’s doing a great job with both! Hope you’ll drop by and give her some encouragement. Everybody needs a little dose of that every now and then.

That’s all for now. If you live in the US, don’t forget your taxes are due April 15. Gotta pay fer all this stuff Congress is passin’ somehow! Hope you’re having a great week and that the pollen ain’t choking you out, too.

Out!

Random Randomness

2010-04-07T22:55:00.001-05:00

Sometimes I have a theme, sometimes I don’t. Have some real random thoughts this week. Can randomness be a theme?

Anywho, here I go:

Some women in Maine marched topless the other day to protest the fact men can legally go without shirts and they can’t. Then, the organizer got mad cuz a bunch of men stood around and gawked. Let’s see. You’re protesting to draw attention to your cause, then you get mad when people pay attention to your cause. Makes sense to me. Guess if it ever does become normal for women to walk around topless, men won’t pay attention to things like that. Nah, doubt it;
Can see a swingset out of my office window. Saw a grown lady swinging on it the other day. Thought how awesome it was that she apparently can still get a thrill out of that part of her childhood. Far out;
Why does it seem like you are always going uphill no matter which way you go when you are running? Probably a metaphor on life there somewhere;
Pollen sucks. Sorry, that’s a little crude, but there’s just no other way to put it. Know it’s an important part of the circle of life, but it sure makes my eye miserable this time of year. Can’t hardly wear my contacts more than a couple hours at a time;
Can tell I’ve lost weight over the last year. Put on a pair of pants today that I had to hold my stomach in just to button this time last year. Noticed they were bunched in the front today from where my belt had to hold them up. Should probably help stimulate the economy by buying some new ones;
See where Spirit Airline is going to start charging people for carry-on bags. First bag will be free. Will have to pay for the second one. Can’t remember if a woman’s purse counts or not. Guess airlines will start charging you extra to sit down before too long. “Will that be standing or sitting? Oh, and by the way, it’s illegal to stand…”;
Was the Butler/Duke game awesome or what? That, my friends, is what sport is really all about. Drama for all 40 minutes of the game. Even if you are a Duke hater, you still have to admit both teams played well. Butler proved without a doubt that they belonged in that game. You have to wonder why the media keeps calling them Cinderella when they had more top 100 recruits (3) than Syracuse (0), who were picked by several folks to win it all. Makes a better story, I reckon;
Saw an article the other day that said passage of the healthcare bill is a sign of our decline as a country. Said history has shown people start losing their ability to be innovative as they start relying more and more on the government for stuff. Interesting theory. Not sure I totally agree with it, but may have some merit;
People are already calling up insurance companies asking if they can get their free health insurance now. Folks just don’t pay attention, I reckon. Still won’t have free health insurance…yet. Anyway, most of the provisions in the bill don’t even go into effect until 2014. Never heard either side mention that, did ya? At least not very loudly if they did;
Read today that 50% of Americans don’t pay any kind of income taxes. Wish I was one of ‘em…;
Jessica Simpson posed for Marie Claire magazine without wearing any makeup or having any computer touch-ups to her pictures. Wonder what it says about society in general that this is even considered newsworthy. Thought she still looked nice from the picture I saw. Personally think women don’t really need it. Dread the day my little girl starts wanting to wear it all the time;
Have enjoyed Twitter so far. Lots of information to digest if you can keep up. Very fast-paced, especially if you start following a lot of people. Have “met” some interesting people from all over the world (literally) on there.

Done for now. Thanks as always for reading. Since you can’t tip your waiters and waitresses here, be sure to check out my blogging buddies on the left. Some haven’t written in a while. Other have, though, and they’re usually pretty interesting.

Peace out.

Proud To Be An American!

2010-04-04T13:23:00.001-05:00

Have seen some things this week that have really made me proud to live in the good Ol’ USA. Mean that literally and sarcastically all at the same time. Got stories from both sides of the aisle, too, and the best story is last. You may notice there’s no soundtrack. You’ll see why later. Anyway, here’s what I’m talking about:

President Obama gave a 17 minute reply to a woman who said we are being overtaxed. He outlined seven, count ‘em, SEVEN points to the woman. No one is sure he if even answered her comment. There’s two things that tell me he probably did not give her a truthful answer. First, he’s a politician. Politicians and telling the whole truth are two things which do not belong in the same paragraph, much less the same sentence. Second, (and, if you’re a female, about to let you in on a secret you may have figured out anyway) the more a man talks when answering a question, the more likely it is that he’s lying, or at least stretching the truth. Probably cuz he’s trying to convince himself at the same time. Anyway, twice said his answer was going on too long so he realized what he was doing but still couldn’t stop. Appears even he knows the definition of “the rich” will expand before it’s all said and done. Must have left his teleprompter at home that day, too;
Phil Hare, the Democratic Congressman who represents the 17th District in Illinois, recently said “I don’t worry about the Constitution” on camera when asked if the healthcare bill was Constitutional. (You can hear it for yourself) He went on to say the Constitution “says people have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” When asked if he read the bill, he claimed to have read it 3 times. People have jumped on this as an example of how out of touch politicians are these days. In his defense, the cameraman said, “Jackpot, Brother” after the first remark, which leads me to believe they goaded him into saying something(s) stupid. Rep. Hare later released a statement saying he meant he’s not worried about whether it will pass the Constitutionality test. Willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on his intent. The Constitution does give government the right to promote the general welfare of the people. However, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is in the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution. Again, in trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, maybe an easy mistake to make in that situation. However, have to throw the BS flag on reading the 8,100 page bill 3 times before voting on it. Let’s say it took 2 minutes per page just for argument’s sake. That would be 16,200 minutes, or 270 hours, which breaks down into 11.25 days just to read it once. So it would have taken him about a month to read it 3 times if he read 24 hours a day with no breaks. You can break it down even further if you want. Even if he really did read it, is it possible he comprehended all of it since he would have essentially been speed-reading? The American public may not be all that smart, but we ain’t that stupid, either…are we?;
Just so y’all won’t think I picking on the Dems, it came out this week that the Republican party approved an expense report with a tab close to $2,000 from a bondage-themed strip bar around Hollywood. Was supposedly for meals. Seems the fiscal conservatives don’t mind stimulating the economy (insert your own joke here) in some settings, anyway. Along those same lines, the Pubs also sent out a fundraising letter this week with the phone number to a telephone sex operation on it instead of the party’s. (Why does it seem phone number mistakes are always to sex lines?) Talk about a typo. Pretty sad when you don’t even know your own phone number. There’s nothing I can say in defense of either one of these blunders. Guess they’re taking the ‘P’ in GOP seriously these days;
All right, now onto something that does make me forevermore proud to be an American. Heard of the Patriot Guard Riders but had never seen this. No comments can do it justice other than “THANK YOU!!! YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME!!!” You just have to watch the clip to see why. This was put together by the family of United States Army Specialist Bobby Russell West, who gave his life serving our country in Iraq. Be sure to turn your sound on and watch it all the way through. WARNING – Watching this may cause tears, choking sensations, and a sudden urge to give a standing ovation and salute.

Our veterans are truly a different breed. May God bless you always!

Hope you had a happy Easter! Thanks as always for reading.

The Empty Tomb

2010-04-02T19:25:00.000-05:00

This is the holiest week of the year for Christians. This week excites me more as a Christian than even Christmas. Why? Easter is the day that separates Christianity from every other religion in the world. This day celebrates our Savior has an empty tomb!

Almost 2000 years ago, there were a lot of sad people on this day. They had seen someone they saw as The Messiah perish on a cross. Not just perish, but suffer a cruel and painful death. Life as they saw it was over. Little did they know how right they were!

Jesus chose to die as a sacrifice for all the sins of the world. Three days later He was alive! There are many reasons He arose from the grave. The most important is so He can walk beside those that let Him into their lives. He died so that we may live.

My family and I choose for Jesus to be a part of our lives. Does that mean our lives have been easy since that decision? Nope. Not even close. But, what it does mean is Jesus walks with us every day. He is there to comfort us and give us direction in our journey through this life. When we choose to listen, life seems a little easier. We know we will have strength and encouragement to get through the bad times. We also have someone else to help us celebrate the good things. Ultimately, we know we will have life after we leave this world. All these reasons give us the peace and happiness most people seek for their lives.

And, it's all because of an empty tomb.

If this post seems familiar to you, that's cuz it's the same one from last year. Just couldn't think of a better way to say it this year.

Have a happy Easter!

These May Only Interest Me, But…

2010-03-31T22:01:00.001-05:00

Before get started, how do you like the new look of the page? Just seems a little more serene and thought-provoking. Like the old saying goes, if you cant impress ‘em with your smarts, divert their attention.

Anyway, been some things in the news which have caught my attention. May only interest me, but, they might interest you, too. So, if you’re curious about what piques my interest, here we go:

Jaime Escalante died this week. You may be asking who he is. He was the inspiration for the movie Stand and Deliver, starring Edward James Olmos and Lou Diamond Phillips. Mr. Escalante was a math teacher in an inner-city school. You know, the schools where no one is supposed to be able to learn? Anyway, he started teaching advanced math classes such as calculus and his students became some of the best students in the country. He proved attitude has more influence than conditions, which is something I’ve thought for a long time. It’s easy for kids to lay blame on someone or something else if adults do it, too. Just something to think about when you’re talking to your kids. RIP, Mr. Escalante;
Been seeing a lot of headlines about the Sandra Bullock/Jesse James situation. Who is cheating on who with whom? Why did they do it? Who will be filing for divorce? Why should we care? If he cheated on her, that should be between them and not played out in all the tabloids. Would this really be a story if she hadn’t won the Oscar this year? Hard to say for sure, but I doubt it. Barely know who he is and she hadn’t really been heard from in a long time until The Blind Side came out. Am I saying he shouldn’t have cheated on her? Absolutely not. Just wishing the media would leave them alone, or at least her, anyway;
Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder was killed in Iraq in 2006. A Baptist church out of Iowa decided to protest the war during his funeral. His father Albert Snyder filed suit against the church for invading the privacy of the funeral and causing even more distress than was already there. The initial jury awarded him millions of dollars. The appeals court not only overturned the award but ordered Mr. Snyder to pay the church’s legal bills. Now, can understand the court saying the church had the right to free speech since they were protesting outside the funeral in a public place. Freedom of speech even applies to idiots as long as they are not inciting violence or anything like that. But, it’s a real slap in the face of Mr. Snyder to be ordered to pay the legal fees for the church in my opinion. Would not consider this a frivolous lawsuit. Ecclesiastes says there is a time for everything. The funeral for someone who died for your freedoms is not the place for an anti-war protest. Anyway, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear Mr. Snyder’s appeal. Hope they have some sense about ‘em;
President Obama has decided to open up some of the oil fields along the Gulf Coast and Virginia which have been closed for the last 20 years. Now, you would think the Pubs would be happy and the Dems would be upset. Well, at least one Pub has said it didn’t go far enough. Some Dems are supporting it while others are leery about environmental concerns. Obama started his presidential campaign by saying he was agin it but would open them up if there was scientific proof it would help. Guess he found it somewhere. Can’t imagine there’s enough oil in those reserves to make even a tiny dent in our needs. But, have to give him credit for trying to appease the other side of the aisle on at least one issue. I’ll give you a little oil in exchange for signing a health bill few people in the public are happy with. Seems like a fair trade, huh?;
Heard about Pat Venditte? He’s a right-handed pitcher for the Yankees. No, he’s a left handed pitcher for the Yankees. No, oh, heck, he throws with both hands. Just depends on which side of the plate the batter stands on. Has a six-fingered glove so he can switch it back and forth. Now, it’s amazing enough when anyone is talented enough to pitch a baseball at the professional level. Hard to imagine having that kind of talent in both arms. He’s still in the minors for now, but he may make it to The Show before too long. Will have to keep an eye out for him;
Most of you know I’m an Alabama Crimson Tide fan through and through. But, saw a story this week where one of Auburn’s recruits (who picked AU over UA for some reason) was diagnosed with leukemia this week. His name is Shon Coleman. Has to be very tough to hear this kind of news when it seems you have everything going for you, especially for an athlete of his caliber. My thoughts and prayers go out to him for his recovery and to his family for their comfort. War Eagle, Shon!;
As you may have seen on the left, decided to join the Twitter world last week. My screen name is ScotPS23. Some interesting people to follow on there. Decided to follow Dr. Alan Zimmerman. He wrote a note to thank me. He mentioned my twins so know it wasn’t just some standard reply. Was pretty excited about that. It’s a great way to keep up with the news if you want. The thing I wasn’t expecting is some of the businesses who decide to follow you. Guess it’s in the hope you will follow them. Had a couple of sports gambling and a vitamin store start following me. Didn’t return the favor so they dropped me. Oh well. Try to provide an update on my thoughts several times during the day. It’s a good release if nothing else;
The more I hear “Mother” from Pink Floyd’s The Wall, the more I appreciate it’s melodies. Could listen to it over and over again without the lyrics. They are a little too Oedipal for me. But, it has my second-most-favorite David Gilmour guitar solo in it. Very nice.

Well, that’s all for now. A little longer than I intended. Hope one or two of ‘em interested you as much as they did me. Thanks as always for making it this far.

Later.

My Takes

2010-03-26T23:40:00.002-05:00

Both of you who read this blog are probably wondering why I haven’t had any comments on the news lately. Well, as you may have seen, been on vacation part of the time. And, it’s been kind of slow in the news department so just haven’t been motivated to write…What’s that you say? There has been some news? Are you serious? Just kidding. Just needed to blog on the funner stuff first.

So, in case you’re curious about my thoughts, here we go:

So, healthcare reform finally passed. Not real sure what I think about it to be honest. Am happy there’s no “public option”…yet, anyway. Have to imagine that will be debated again in the years to come. From what I’ve read and heard about the current version, am willing to see what will happen. Although my instincts are not real happy about it, my rational side hasn’t seen anything that really upsets me. Am certainly not like the nut mentioned in U S Common Sense or any of the other people out there threatening Congressmen with physical harm. Reactions like that just cause more people to turn agin ya rather than fer ya. If you really want to hurt a politician, vote against him and/or donate to his opponent;
Have been hearing all the hullaballoo about VP Biden dropping the mother of all curse words before some press conference on healthcare. Nobody ever said he was the brightest bulb in the bunch, but think this is being way overblown. I’m of the same opinion expressed by Seth Frederikson in his blog. You should definitely think before saying something like that in front of microphones and cameras. As a disclaimer, while I agree with Mr. F’s take on this situation, I did not vote, will not vote, and certainly did not work to elect nor will work to re-elect the current administration. But, just cuz we don’t see eye-to-eye politically, don’t mean we can’t get along and just agree to disagree on some things. Anyway, learned all I needed to about Ol’ Joe when he plagiarized a speech way back when he ran for the Oval Office. Bottom line, if you’re going to be dropping f-bombs, only load them in the bomb bay doors when you are far from the never blinking eyes and ears of the media;
Have read a little about the lesbian in Mississippi causing the prom to be cancelled. Now, if she wants to wear a tux and bring a girl with her to the dance, that’s her business as far as I’m concerned. My issue is why did she ask for permission in the first place? The conspiracy theorist in me thinks she got the answer she was hoping for so she could draw attention to herself and/or her cause. Could be wrong, but…Otherwise, why not just show up with who she wants to be with wearing whatever she wants? And, of course, the media has played along just like the lapdogs they are. But, reckon if idiots like me didn’t click on the links to read the stories, they wouldn’t follow these stories…;
The Indian military has made a weapon out of the bhut jolokia, a.k.a. – the world’s hottest pepper. It’s a bomb which guess can be called the nuclear bomb of all the tear gasses. To give you an idea of just how hot these peppers are, a jalapeno rates up to 8,000 units on the scale used to judge the heat in peppers. This one rates at over 1,000,000. Pretty dang hot. The plan is to use it as a non-lethal weapon in their war against terrorism. Reckon they figure to smoke more information out of them by turning up the heat. The article also said they are looking to develop it for civilian self-defense. Talk about too hot to handle;
Have you heard of Corey Poitier? He’s a Republican running for Congress in Florida. The other day he made a comparison to Buckwheat in one of his campaign speeches. People have interpreted it to say he was talking about his Dem opponent (who is black) or President Obama. So, you’re thinking just another white, male Pub without a clue, right? As one sports dude would say, not so fast, my Friend. Mr. Poitier is actually black. For the record, he says he was referring to the healthcare bill and not to anyone in specific. (Guess I would, too) He also said he and his brother have used that term for years and it essentially means “dummy” to them. To me, just goes to show there’s people on both sides of the aisle who need to think before they open their pie hole;
Been an exciting year for the NCAA tournament this year. Lots o’ good upsets. This is what sports should be all about. Everyone has a chance and folks love to root for the underdogs. People say the basketball tournament proves that a football playoff would work. Not so sure about that cuz, in college football, people like for the powerhouses to win the championship. Anywho, as of tonight, the SEC still has two teams left so I’m still really interested. If and when they go out, will only remain interested enough so my sports-minded friends will still think I’m cool. OK, sort of cool. Well, not as big of a geek…hopefully;
Was looking at my friend suggestions on Facebook the other day. Some of them I understood cuz we have mutual friends. Some of the others made no sense at all cuz, not only do we not have any mutual friends, got no idea who they are in the first place. Just wonder what criteria they use to make those suggestions;
Still thinking about the Twitter thing. Have almost made the decision to try it out although I’m not really sure why. Might be a little too long-winded for the 140 character limit. Will have to see;
A friend of mine said he went through a drive-thru the other day and they asked him if it was for here or to go. Guess someone was having a long day.

Well, that’s all for now. As always, thanks for making it to the end with me. March 27 marks the one year anniversary of my very first blog. Where does the time go? Want to thank every one of y’all who let me clear out the voices in me noggin. Well, quiet ‘em down, anyway.

Y’all have a great weekend now! Ya hear?

48 Ways to Have a Great Day Every Day

2010-03-24T21:56:00.000-05:00

Some of you may recall I once posted a newsletter from Dr. Alan Zimmerman on ways to reduce stress in your life (see here). Well, gotta another one want to share about different ways to have a great day every day. They are all very short. It's from his October 27, 2009, newsletter. Gonna add some editorial comment on a few of them, but most stand pretty much on their own.

Dr. Zimmerman's TUESDAY TIP:

"The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it."

Michelangelo Buonarroti, Italian Renaissance painter and sculptor

What Dr. Zimmerman Has To Say About This:

Michelangelo is right. You shouldn't settle for an "okay" life when an "exceptional" life is possible. You shouldn't settle for "getting through another day" when every day could be a "great" one.

And over the years, I've discovered that a "great" day has a lot more to do with how I approach it than what actually happens to me. A "great" day is a matter of choice and not a matter of luck.

That being the case, I've put together a list of ways you can have a great day every day. It's a compilation of my thoughts and experiences ... interspersed with the wisdom of others. Print out the list and look at once in a while ... because the more points you follow, the better your days will be.

DR. ZIMMERMAN'S 48 WAYS TO HAVE A GREAT DAY ... EVERY DAY

**Get PHYSICAL.

1. Take a few deep breaths throughout the day. It not only calms you but re-invigorates you.

2. Get busy living. Don't sit around waiting for life to happen. And don't sit around wallowing in the grief of yesterday. Life is too short for long pity parties.

3. And if you're feeling overwhelmed or burned out, just remember ... for fast-acting relief, try slowing down. (works better than any chemical you can put in your body)

**Put some RECREATIONAL fun in your day.

4. Look for the humor in everyday situations. For example, if you show me a man that has both feet firmly planted on the ground, I'll show you a man who can't get his pants off.

5. Look for the craziness in everyday platitudes. As they say, "Give a man a fish, and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he'll eat for a lifetime." But in reality, sometimes you teach a man to fish, he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day long. (not that there's anything wrong with that from time to time)

6. Don't watch life from the sidelines. Get involved and make the most of it ... starting now.

7. Grow up without growing old.

8. Always remember, no one is in charge of your happiness except you. (extra double AMENS for this one!!!)

**Keep your EMOTIONAL life in check.

9. Lighten up. Most of the things you worry about aren't going to happen anyway. (One of my favorite quotes is "Lighten up, Frances" from Stripes)

10. Don't go through life; grow through life.

11. Dismiss discouragement. Every great achievement was once impossible. (Just think of the advances made in our lifetimes you would have never dreamed possible such iPods, laptops, etc)

12. Remember, it's always darkest just before the dawn. So if you're going to steal your neighbor's newspaper, that's the time to do it.

13. Practice patience. Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance. (Perseverance, too)

14. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.

15. Be thankful for your problems. If you threw all your problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, you'd grab yours back.

**Nurture your SOCIAL connections.

16. Enthusiasm is contagious. Start an epidemic.

17. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God.

18. Multiply your happiness by dividing it.

19. Tell the truth; then you won't have to worry about remembering anything.

20. Remember, there's always someone who cares about you. In fact, if you think nobody cares if you're alive or dead, try missing a couple of car payments.

21. Don't miss a good chance to shut up. Generally speaking, you aren't learning much when your lips are moving. (Like the old saying goes, there's a reason God gave us two ears and only one mouth)

22. Beware of gossip. Letting the cat out of the bag is a whole lot easier than putting it back in again.

23. If you want to G-E-T, you have to A-S-K.

24. Guard your tongue. You cannot unsay a cruel word.

25. Choose your friends carefully. When you wallow with pigs, you're going to get dirty. (As the Bible says in Proverbs, bad company ruins good character)

26. Strive to make people feel good. After all, people will forget what you said, and people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

27. Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

28. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

29. Even if you have pains, you don't have to be one.

30. Forgive your enemies. It messes up their heads.

31. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.

**Approach your OCCUPATION with wisdom.

31. Don't be irreplaceable. If you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted.

32. Don't corner anyone meaner than you.

33. The harder you work, the luckier you get. (Imagine that)

**Use your MENTAL capacity to think good thoughts and make good choices.

34. Remember ... life isn't fair. Some days you're the bug, and some days you're the windshield. Deal with it.

35. When you're pursuing what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.

36. Never dismiss the value of a mistake. Make the mistakes of yesterday your lesson for today.

37. Be thankful for every experience. After all, good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of those experiences come from bad judgment. (Lots of good stories, too)

37. If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging.

38. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

39. Never test the depth of the water with both feet.

40. Use common sense. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.

41. Keep on learning ... by reading and observing. Forget about learning the hard way. As Will Rogers said, "There are three kinds of men: The ones that learn by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence and find out for themselves." (Only took me 5 times to figure out that fence hurts)

42. Keep your ego in check. And if you ever get to thinking you're a super-important, hot-shot kind of person, try ordering somebody else's dog around.

**Tap into your SPIRITUAL side.

43. Don't count the days; make the days count.

44. Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply.

45. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll enjoy it a second time.

46. Don't go through life with a catcher's mitt on each hand ... with a "gimme, gimme, gimme" attitude. True happiness comes from throwing some things back into life.

47. Don't forget ... every path has a few puddles.

48. Do what is right whether or not you feel like it. The time is always right to do what is right.

49. No matter what happens, the sun will always rise tomorrow.

50. Always remember God loves you...and the rest of us are trying.

So there's my list. Feel free to edit it as you like. Make up your own list. Write down your truths. And when the economy seems bleak, when your business is struggling, when your relationships are under fire, or you seem to be living under a cloud, pull out the list and read it again. Remind yourself you CAN have a good day ... EVERY DAY ... if you just apply a few of these truths.

Action:

Add two more "ways to have a good day every day" ... to the list above. Make it an even 50.

Dr. Alan Zimmerman

As you can see, already added my additional two. Am interested in what yours may be. Please feel free to let me know by either leaving a comment or sending me an e-mail at ScotPS23@yahoo.com.

If you are interested in learning more about Dr. Z or signing up for his newsletter, you can go to his website using this link. He's given me lots of things to think about over the years. You might enjoy him, too.

As always, thanks for reading. Feel free to pass this along to your family and friends. (Now, that's a funny expression just screaming for its own blog.) And, don't forget about my friends' blogs over on the left side. Been some good ones lately.

I'm out!

Disney Vacation

2010-03-22T21:08:00.006-05:00

Well, just spent a week visiting with The Mouse. Went on the cruise then headed over to Orlando for a couple of days of the Magic Kingdom and Epcot. As usual, had some random observations rattle around in me noggin. So, will share ‘em with you so I can clear ‘em out of me head.

If you’re ready, here we go:

What is it about Disney that inspires people to plop down $30 on crazy hats which you won’t wear the next day much less after you get home? You know the ones I’m talking about. The sorcerers hats, the ears, etc. We were guilty of it, too. Bought a bunch of stuff for the Pirates in the Caribbean party on the boat which will probably never be worn again. Unbelievable;
Disney is all about customer service. They will do anything they can to make a guest happy as long as it’s within reason. About the only time they willingly disappoint guests is when the characters leave with people still in line to see ‘em. There’s just no way around that, though;
That being said, they’re all about customer service cuz they’re all about the Benjamins. Happy guests open their wallets way more often than unhappy ones. They nickel and dime you until you’ve spent way more than you realized/wanted. Nothing wrong with keeping your business afloat, but wish they would let me keep some of my money for when I get back home;
Quote of the week from my daughter: “You mean they charge to get into Disney?!” as we were pondering a last minute trip to the Magic Kingdom. Ah, the innocence of childhood;
Quote of the week from my son: “Why do people congest the roads” as we were sitting still on the interstate for the umpteenth time for no apparent reason while trying to get home Saturday. Wish I had an answer for him. Just can’t understand how traffic can stop on a road with no stoplights or stop signs when there are no wrecks;
There are some Bama fans that work at Disney. When I took pictures of Mickey and Minnie on Castaway Cay, both gave me the thumbs up for the Bama cover on my iPhone. Figured they did that for everyone regardless of the school. Well, when I took my son’s picture with Capt. Hook, he did the same thing and gave a hand cheer when I said, “Roll Tide.” My son said, “War Eagle” (yes, he cheers for the other side, sigh) and Hook gave him a thumbs down. Would guess that’s not standard procedure;
The smiles on your family’s faces make it worth all the money spent and time spent standing in lines. Memories truly are priceless.

A cast member asked us if we were having a good time. Told ‘im we wouldn’t be talking with him to book our cruise for next year if we weren’t. Although we had a great time, it’s always nice to get back home and sleep in your own bed…even though it rained, hailed and snowed the day we got back with a little bit of sunshine thrown in, too.

Thanks for letting me reminisce a little. Hope it made you think of some of your own great vacation memories.

Until next time…

Quick Hits

2010-03-08T23:59:00.004-06:00

Got some quick hits that’ve been kicking around in my gray matter. Maybe you can help me with some answers or comments, if needed. Thanks.

OK. Here we go:

How do people know to call when you’re about to start something you’ve been trying to talk yourself into for 30 minutes?
Been thinking about getting into Twitter. Any thoughts or suggestions?;
Hadn’t seen it so don’t know, but, imagine Hurt Locker is an anti-war film. Anyone really surprised it won the Oscar from the liberal Hollywood crowd?;
Why does NASCAR think it’s smart to head to the West Coast, where the stands are half-full at best, after its biggest race of the year?
Skype is awesome;
Ever notice most fitness TV commercials are geared towards women?;
Now that TNA is moving t0 Monday nights, maybe pro wrestling/sports entertainment will be worth watching again…maybe;
Brett Hart, the Excellence of Execution. The best there is, the best there was, the best there ever will be;
Glad the weather’s getting better. Hope it will inspire me to start exercising more;
Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains is one of the best seasons ever;
Anyone else not watching American Idol this year and not missing it?;
The hardest part of getting a new laptop is getting used to the keyboard;
It’s true a Southern man don’t need Neil Young around anyhow;
The Percy Jackson and the Olympians book series is purty good even for adults;
Is Chumley really that dumb and Rick really that smart on Pawn Stars?;
Have been able to catch with some folks haven’t thought about in years on Facebook. Very nice.

Feel a little better now. Thanks for your curiosity. Please feel free to leave an answer and/or comment or two, or send me an e-mail at ScotPS23@yahoo.com. If there’s a question gnawing at you, please leave it, too.

Probably won’t be updating the blog over the next couple of weeks. Gotta take a break every now and then. But, fear not, both fans out there, I will definitely be back. Will still check for comments, though. Please feel free to peruse my archives over on the left while I'm gone.

Y’all have a good one! Be back soon!

More Stuff

2010-03-05T16:08:00.003-06:00

Hope everyone’s had a great week. Mine’s been pretty good. Even though the week started with more snow in the Deep South, gonna be an awesome weekend weather-wise here. Sunny and 60’s. Can’t wait.

Gotta few things to comment on and wanted to throw them out there while they’re still fresh in me noggin. So, if you’re willing to proceed, here we go:

A North Carolina congressmen has submitted a proposal to replace Ulysses S Grant on the $50 bill with Ronald Reagan. Now, I’m about as big a Reagan fan as you will find, however, not so sure about this one. In the grand scheme of things, Grant did more for our country by winning the Civil War as a soldier than Reagan did during his presidency. Think all the current folks on our money should stay put. If they want to honor Reagan with his mug on some money, they should probably come up with another coin like a $0.20 piece. That would help cover those $0.99 plus tax things you always have to find extra change for. Just a thought;
Saw where Scott Matheson was nominated by President Obama to be a federal judge. So what, you may be asking. Well, turns out he’s the brother of Jim Matheson, a Dem congressman from Utah, who also happens to be undecided on his healthcare reform vote. Imagine that. Now, Obama claims that has nothing to do with his selection, and from what I’ve read, Scott seems qualified for the position. But, it still looks a little fishy no matter how you slice it. Just goes to show the more things change, the more they stay the same;
President Obama had a press conference the other day with a bunch of doctors standing behind him wearing white coats. Why do doctors have to wear these things when they are out in public? You see them all the time making public appearances wearing their white coats or surgical scrubs like they just left a waiting room full of patients or someone on the operating table. Guess they think it lends an air of credibility or something. Think it makes them look like they are trying to distract you from the dribble coming out of their mouths myself;
Joined a blog promotion website called SeededBuzz.com. The concept is you read other blogs and then provide a link to their blog on yours when you use theirs as inspiration on yours. Sounds more complicated than it really is. So, if you’re a blogger, suggest you check it out to see if it might be for you. Ain’t a charge to be a basic member, but, naturally, you can upgrade for a small fee if you like. They encourage you to remain a free member, though. Say all this to let you know I will provide comments on other blogs from time to time now. Will also provide a link to the blog so you can read it for yourself if you like;
Read about a law being introduced out in California to outlaw cursing for a week on An Authors Journey (link here). The politician who proposed it says cursing leads to all kind of social mayhem so it should be illegal for a week. Should be noted there is no penalty if you break the law if and when it is passed. This brings several thoughts to mind. One, why worry about this $@^# when California has an economic crisis worse than the US? Someone else agrees with this question in limerick form here Two, at what point in language history did these words become bad to say? If you think about it, why is “manure” or “anus” any better to say than their more colorful alternatives? Even some innocuous words such as "hole" can be seen as offensive, I guess. Have watched shows before where the speaker has said “ass” and the second half of the word is bleeped out. To me, would think they would bleep the former rather than the latter. Anyway, just seems like a politician wanting to tell his constituents he’s getting legislation passed when it comes time for re-election. Better hope no one asks him what it is;
US Common Sense (link here) has a commentary about Starbucks refusing to kowtow to the anti-handgun movement. Seems California (and 42 other states) has a law which states you can openly carry handguns anywhere you want. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence went to several businesses asking them to prevent people from coming into their places if they were openly packing heat. Several capitulated but Starbucks refused saying they always follow the local laws and regulations. I say good for Starbucks! It irritates me when people want to push their beliefs by trying to hold corporations hostage. Went out and bought a venti non-fat latte this morning just to show my support. Now, will say I’m not a big fan of handguns myself; however, I will fight to the death your right to own one (legally) if you so choose. But, that is a topic for a whole ‘nother blog;
Gonna have an interesting trial coming up here shortly. Anthony Galea, a sports medicine doctor in Canada, is being tried for attempting to have HGH smuggled from the US into Canada. He’s treated some big-name stars including Alex Rodriguez and Tigger Woods. Of course, they deny taking HGH and say they were taking part in some sort of blood-cleansing type therapy the doc is famous for. Could get real interesting, though. Not usually a conspiracy theorist, but have always thought it was a little odd that Tigger blew out his knee the year the PGA started testing for performance-enhancing drugs. Not that I think it gave him an unfair advantage if he did take PED’s. His mental toughness is what separates him from everyone else. Probably didn't take them. Still…;
Did you see where McDonald’s has struck up a sponsorship deal with…brace yourself…Weight Watchers? Yup. Happened in New Zealand. McD’s will be able to use the WW seal of approval for several of their meals including chicken nuggets and filet-o-fish sandwiches. Needless to say, not all health advocates are crazy about it seeing as how McD’s is always the poster child for unhealthy eating. Never would have thought it would happen myself, but more power to them if that’s what both parties want to do. It’s their name and money 0n the line. Will be interesting to see if it makes its way to this side of the pond;
Could be an interesting weekend in Alabama. The bingo parlors have opened back up. The state authorities have said they’re gonna raid them. The county authorities have said they gonna stop ‘em at the door. And our politicians wonder why people, including our own citizens, make fun of Alabama;
March is one of the best months of the year for sports fans. The NCAA basketball tournament (a.k.a – March Madness) will be starting soon. Baseball spring training has started. Basketball and hockey are wrapping up their seasons to start the playoffs. Will be lots of stuff for sports folks to yak about. Should be a fun month.

That’s all the news that is the news…to me…for now, anyway. Thanks as always for trudging through it. Hope you enjoyed it or at least have a few more things to think about, if you need more. Please be sure to check the links on the left, too. Some good stuff over there.

Have a great weekend!

Random Synapse Gaps

2010-03-03T12:56:00.002-06:00

Every time me thinks the news just can’t get any stranger, it does. Reckon that’s what I get for thinking. So if you want to read commentary on some recent news, please continue.

If you are into smoking left-handed cigarettes, Statewide Insurance Services has decided to add coverage for medicinal marijuana to their health insurance policies. They said it’s already legal in 14 states and they figure won’t be too long before the rest follow suit. Would it surprise you to find out they are based in California? Anyway, if you’re into that kind of thing and want some coverage, all you need is to live in a state where it’s legal, find a doc to give you a prescription, and buy their insurance. Now, that’s what I call thinking outside the box;
It’s come out the former mayor of Birmingham won 555 times at the local electronic bingo establishments over the last 3 years. Total winnings: around $1.5 million. Although he says he doesn’t remember winning like that, claimed the winnings on his taxes so it must be true. Some days he won close to $100,000. Several workers have said they were told by management to take him to the “lucky” machines. Imagine that. Don’t have anything against gambling myself. But, does go to show what kind of character the gambling moguls can have. In case you’re wondering why he’s the former mayor, he was recently convicted of taking bribes from several other folks and is about to be sentenced to the pokey. Surprised?;
See where Tigger went home from rehab a little over a week after his statement. Wonder why he couldn’t have waited another week or two? Maybe he really was trying to stick it to the sponsor who dropped him during their tournament. Or, maybe he just wanted to be able to get away for a while from the media hubbub he knew would come after he talked. Who knows? The real question to me: is he sleeping in his bed or on the couch?;
Nancy Pelosi said the other day the politicians should vote for healthcare reform, even if it jeopardizes their political career, cuz it’s what the people want. As a friend of mine said, if it’s what the people want, why would a vote for reform put their careers in jeopardy? Sometimes people really should think before they open their yap in public;
Read where the Chilean earthquake caused the earth’s axis to shift slightly. Something about the rocks moving which caused the earth’s weight to shift. Anyway, it will result in shorter days. Have lost about 1.26 microseconds according to a NASA scientist. Not something I would necessarily think about with an earthquake. The article said the fact it happened is not that unusual but the length of time is. In comparison, the quake that triggered the tsunami in 2004 only altered the time by .06 microseconds (whatever that is). On a side note, have found it interesting the world is not coming to Chile’s aid like it did Haiti. Reckon it’s cuz of the lower death tolls. Still a sad event, though;
Guy Morriss, the head football coach at Texas A&M-Commerce, was bragging about teaching his players how to steal. Seems the student newspaper had a headline about several players getting busted for selling drugs so he told his players to go out and get every copy they could find. Problem was, the first paper was free then it’s $0.25 for every copy after that. Since they were taking them stacks at a time without paying the quarters, the paper accused them of stealing. Coach said there was nothing wrong with telling his players to take the papers. How much you want to bet there will be another headline soon which reads, “Morriss Gone!”?
Just how fickle is the American public? Jay Leno, who couldn’t draw flies to his prime time show, handily won the ratings war when he returned to his old time slot Monday. Go figure. Can’t imagine his show is any different. Maybe it’s cuz the head musician got canned when they moved back. Who knew?;
See where Sully Sullivan has decided to hang up his wings. Might as well, he’s been making so many public appearances (and rightly so) after he landed that plane, probably doesn’t have enough time for his real job. Congrats on making it to retirement, Sully! Hope you have a long and fulfilling flight into the sunset.

Well, that’s all I got for now. Thanks as always for hanging on to the end. Y’all have a good one!
Until next time…

Just Some Stuff

2010-02-26T15:53:00.001-06:00

Well, been some interesting things in the news over the last week or so. Would you be shocked to find out had an opinion or two on them? Figured as much. So, if you’re willing, here we go:

Have had a chance to mull over Tigger’s statement. Think there was something in it for everyone. If you are wanting to forgive him, he said all the right things. If you ain’t ready, yet, there’s been lots of debate about if this was the real Tigger or just another incarnation of an image he wants us to believe. Not really sure myself and not real sure I care. Did think it’s interesting Elin wasn’t up there with him. Not sure what to read into that. All I really know is am tired of hearing people talk about it. Know what I mean?;
Have seen some hubbub about Scott Brown voting with the Dems on the job bill. You’d think he was the only Republican to do it, but the reality is 4 others also voted with the Dems. According to one article I read, a lot of folks on the right actually supported the bill. They just didn’t like the way Harry Reid was somehow forcing it on them. Since they knew it would pass anyway, they could vote no in protest. As for Mr. Brown, I’m glad (at least on this vote) to see he is his own person. Somebody has to break ranks. That’s the only way we’ll be rid of some of the gridlock in Washington;
Watched a little of the healthcare summit. What a joke. Read where the Dems spoke for about twice as long as the Pubs, although Obama claimed his time shouldn’t count since he’s the prez. First of all, seems like the Pubs were being told they were going too long more than the Dems during the short time I watched. Second of all, why the heck would anyone be timing either side in the first place?! Seems like someone who was just looking for an axe to grind going into it. Doubt this show accomplished very much for either side. Sad to say, know it didn’t hold my interest very long. Just seemed like a bunch of politicians wanting a little press time. The Dems will probably use it as an excuse to proceed without the Pubs now, too;
Eli Manning has agreed to give up $500,000 owed to him by a hospital for PR work. Seems the hospital is already deeply in debt so he’s agreed to forgo the rest of the money owed him. He’s even going to continue working for them. Some folks are griping that he should give the $500 G’s he’d already received from them. Just goes to show you can’t make everybody happy. From what I can tell, the hospital was OK with it, so why should anyone else get upset by it? Anyway, it’s a class move by him, especially since he has said he will keep working for them;
Well, there’s already been a lawsuit filed in relation to the dude flying his plane into the IRS building. Now, I’m not necessarily saying a lawsuit isn’t in order. But, filing one within a week of the incident seems a little premature to me. Guess that’s the American way now. When something happens to you, don’t try to work things out on your own, feed the lawyers so they can drag things out forever and then end up getting more than you do. Like lawsuits, there’s a time and place for lawyers, but seems a little early to get them involved in this case;
Read a story last year where the mayor of Moscow said he was going to prevent snow from falling there this winter. Supposedly had some scientific way to make it go around Moscow. Saw another story this week where it’s snowed there this year just like it always does. When are we going to learn that we are not God, nor do we play Him on TV?;
ESPN has suspended Tony Kornhiser from his TV show for two weeks because of remarks he made on his radio show about a female co-worker. He apparently didn’t like the outfit she was wearing one day and made some comments about it. He later called her to apologize and then apologized on the air the next day. Have heard TK make many comments like these before without any repercussions from his employer. What makes these different is they have a no-tolerance rule for public criticism of fellow ESPN employees, even in non-ESPN outlets like his radio show. So, it’s not what he said so much as who he said them about. Guess it’s OK to bash folks as long as they don’t work for ESPN with you. Somehow, that just don’t seem right to me and just another reason I rarely watch that channel, listen to their radio shows, or surf their site anymore;
Very sad about the trainer at Sea World. We went to the dinner with the whales on our trip last year. Had the same whale during our dinner. The trainers will constantly remind you that these are wild animals and can be unpredictable. Sad way to be reminded of this. Bout the only positive in this whole situation is the trainer went out doing what she loved, which ain’t much in the grand scheme of things. Thoughts and prayers go out to her family and friends;
See where the Russian male figure skater has his knickers in a wad cuz he came in second during the Olympics. Been complaining to anyone who will listen that the judges cheated him out of the gold. That’s why I don’t like to watch those “sports” where the winner is chosen by subjective judging. Never really know if things are on the up-n-up or not. That being said, he’s just being a sore loser. Get over it already;
PARTY ON!!! Hockey has a saying “GAME ON!” which means it’s time to play. Apparently the Canadian women’s team likes the first one, too. After they won the gold, they returned to the ice with beer and cigars to celebrate. Some folks didn’t like it and complained. Now the IOC is going to conduct an investigation although not really sure what they are going to investigate. Maybe where they kept the brewskies and stogies during the game? Who knows? Maybe they should spend their resources investigating the men’s skating judges instead of worrying about some folks having a little fun. Geez, Louise.

Well, that’s the news for this week. Thank you for your time.

This is Scot, and I am outta here!

See you next week.

100 Things About Me - Part Two (aka 51-100)

2010-02-23T21:13:00.000-06:00

OK. Now that you've had time to absorb the first half, gonna pick up where I left off. If you liked the first 50, hope you enjoy these, too. If you didn't, well, maybe you'll like these better. Automatic numbering system won't let me start at 51, so you'll just have to use your imagination. Ready? All right, here we go:

Although I watch more baseball and football than anything else, if I had my druthers about attending a live game, would choose hockey 6 days a week and twice on Sunday. Much more exciting game, especially in person. Too much standing around in football and baseball at live games. Just wish it translated better onto TV. That being said...;
Really enjoy going to baseball games, too. It's natural pace allows you to sit and enjoy the company around you. Have had some real in-depth conversations at baseball games;
Prefer to watch football on TV. There's lots of things you can only see with instant replay. Can also go to the bathroom or get a snack without walking 100 yards only to wait in line for 10-15 minutes and miss part of the game;
Hope to get to a NASCAR race someday. Just want to feel the rumble of the engines;
My favorite classic TV shows include Frasier, M*A*S*H, St. Elsewhere, Northern Exposure and the king of all the classics, The Andy Griffith Show;
My all-time favorite episode of any TV show is the one where Wayne Fiscus gets shot on St. Elsewhere. He travels from Purgatory to Heaven and to Hell several times each to learn things about himself and his beliefs. Really makes me think, too. Awesome show;
Barney Fife buying a motorcycle is a close second. The scene where he drives off leaving Andy sitting in the sidecar makes me laugh every time;
Enjoy the winter Olympics much more than the summer ones. Think it's cuz can picture myself doing more of the winter sports. Would love to compete in the ski jump competition. Not really sure why since I'm not big on heights. But, it seems like the most fun;
Think Thomas Jefferson, a wise and great American, and Benjamin Franklin are two of the smartest people this country will ever produce. People will be talking about them long after most of today's so-called geniuses;
One of my guilty pleasures includes pro wrestling. More of an old-school fan from back in the days of Ric Flair and the Road Warriors in their prime. Follow it today through a newsletter, but don't go out of my way to watch it, anymore. Too many meatheads and not enough personalities and actual wrestling talent today. Yes, I know it's scripted, but so was that movie you watched the other day. Didn't stop you from enjoying it, did it?;
Between January 1 and Dec 31, 2009, lost around 40 pounds, Used C25K and Lose It! apps on my iPhone. The Lose It! app was most eye opening cuz didn't realize how many calories had been consuming in a day and had not been burning as many as I thought. Also lost about 4 inches off my waist;
Tend to be on the quiet side. You know, "It's better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than open it and remove all doubt." Probably live that a little too much although some of you probably think just the opposite;
Am I the only person who doesn't know what a "flash mob" is?;
Wonder why folks can't just accept the probability that Plato made up Atlantis?;
Think it would be neat to take a trip to either the Arctic or Antarctica;
Happy that my kids enjoy reading. Hope they keep it up;
Probably one of the few people who enjoyed watching golf more before Tigger came along. Don't get me wrong, he's one of the best golfers of all time. However, like to see more of the field when he's playing. Also, if he's not in contention, don't need to see every one of his shots that day;
Still think Jack in his prime would have beat Tigger on a regular basis. Just think Jack had the mental toughness not to be intimidated by him. Hard to make a fair comparison, though, cuz courses and equipment are so much better these days;
Am looking forward to the day when I can tell my potential in-laws stories about things my kids did when they were younger;
Love all kinds of music. And, no, that is not just country and western. About the only kind I don't like is ska. At least that's what I think it's called. It's ultra-heavy metal on steroids. Anyway, many people would probably be surprised at the variety on my iPod;
Never know when I might throw out a quote from a movie and/or TV show;
When people ask about injuries from running, my answer is always along the lines of I don't run fast enough to get 'em;
"One of the saddest days of my life was the day I realized I could beat my father at most things." Homer Simpson. Very true. Think Homer Simpson is a tad bit smarter than most people give him credit for;
Curling is one the few things enjoy watching even though got no idea what is going on;
Have never really figured out why Ashton Kutcher is so popular;
The Kardashians, either, for that matter;
Really miss my kids watching the Wiggles. Think they were purty good before Greg left. Hadn't seen the new guy to know if they still are or not;
Know healthcare reform is needed. However, until Congress presents a bill that also applies to them, not really interested in anything else they may put out there;
One of the best feelings in the world is taking my shoes off;
Another one is praying with someone who just accepted Christ as their savior;
Seems to me like the easiest way to share Christ with folks is to talk about what He has done for my life. Can't figure out why that's seemed so hard to do more times than I care to admit;
Am immensely proud of our veterans and am forevermore indebted to each and every one of them. If you are a vet, thanks to you and your families for the sacrifices you have made to ensure my freedoms. Just can't say that enough. And, if you are the family member of someone who made the ultimate sacrifice, a special prayer is lifted for you because a thank you is just not enough;
Would love to spend a couple weeks on either the Northwestern or Time Bandit crab fishing. Probably couldn't make it much longer than that and not even sure could make it that long;
Can't really think of a job would rather do permanently than the one I got now, so it must be my dream job;
Guess if I had to choose something else, would probably pick political/social commentator/columnist. With some of the hacks out there, hard to believe it takes four years to get a degree in journalism. Guess that could be said about a lot of professions, though;
Believe it's difficult to convince a child something is right if all you can say is "just because" or "they say" when they ask why;
My favorite color is dark green (that's hunter for all you aficionados) followed closely by dark purple (eggplant) and many styles of camouflage;
One of my favorite Far Sides is a kid, trying to walk into a school for the gifted, pushing on a door with a big sign which says "Pull." Think about that every time it happens to me;
When my boss once told me I needed to start dressing "more like a leader," went out and bought a camouflage wallet just so I could do what he advised but still counteract that in my mind. Such a rebel...;
Have adjusted to drinking Coke Zero, unsweet tea, and various other diet drinks much better than expected;
Hope to go whale-watching someday. Want to go elk hunting, too;
The first time felt middle-aged was the day had to buy reading glasses. Only need them when wearing my contacts, but still...;
Never forget a favor...Well, try not to, anyway;
Got my first new personal laptop this week. Purty neat. Usually just get a hand-me-down whenever someone else gets a new one;
Believe there's no such thing as useless knowledge. Never know when something you've learned will come in handy;
Have discovered math word problems aren't as hard as I thought when I was in school. In fact, have figured out just about everything involving math in real life is a word problem. Wish I'd known that then. Might have been easier for me;
Have also realized lots of things learned in school apply to every day life more than I thought they would at the time;
Was never really patient until I started dating. Then really had no choice;
Favorite outfit is jeans, t-shirt, and hiking boots;
Now that I'm a parent, realize even more just how hard it had to be for God to sacrifice His son for us. Truly one of the greatest gifts we could ever receive.

Well, that's it. Thanks for hanging in there with me. Takes a lot of thinking to come up with 100 things about yourself. Didn't think I'd struggle with it like I did. Might should have used Gomer's bucket to help me out. He said you can do lots of thinking under there.

Y'all keep 'em straight out there!

A Few Things to Tickle Your Fancy

2010-02-21T17:05:00.001-06:00

Here's a few things hope will bring a smile to your face. Might even give you an excuse or two...

Really?

2010-02-19T10:47:00.000-06:00

Been some things in the news which make me think "really?" when I either see the headline or read the article. Just in case you have missed them, thought I'd share some with you. Might even add a snide remark or two. So, if you're ready...

Someone has finally figured out what killed King Tut...they think. The conclusion was he died of malaria. Sure glad that issue has been solved. Can't tell you how many nights of sleep I've lost over that. Anyway, not sure why it's been so important to figure out. Ain't gonna change our world today as far as I can figure. But, if someone out there is happy this may have finally been resolved, more power to 'em;
President Obama took credit for preventing a depression with the stimulus package passed last year. That's the good thing about "preventing" something like that. No one can really confirm or deny that you are right. Just like W can say he prevented the next Hitler when he invaded Iraq. Short of going to the parallel universe where these things happened because of something we didn't do, no one can really know for sure things were stopped or not. Just so I can feel in the spirit, will now take credit for preventing the sun from not rising and not setting every day because I told them not to stop;
Saw a headline that said "Bill Maher Calls Dick Cheney A Liar." Who cares? If you've ever seen Maher's show on HBO, this should not come as a shock to you. He's as far to the left as Rush Limbaugh is to the right. Plus, what difference does it make? Maher is an actor, not a politician or leader of any sort, and Cheney is no longer in office. Seems like some writer needs more to do with their time. Now, if he'd said Cheney was right all along, THEN you might have a story;
There are billboards popping up in Minnesota and Wisconsin asking if we're missing W, yet. No one seems to want to take credit for them. Even if we were, what difference would it make? Bush has served his two terms allowed by our Constitution and can't come back even if he wanted to and could somehow get re-elected. Seems like the money could have been spent advertising someone who can actually run for office. Guess some folks really do have more money than sense;
That's something else about the dude who flew his plane into the IRS building in Austin, TX. You reckon he had all his faculties about him? Anyway, when you consider close to 200 people work in that building, it's lucky there were only 2 people killed (one of which is apparently him) and 13 people injured. Only two of them went to the hospital. Who knows what he was trying to accomplish? Even set his house on fire before he did it. Guess he wanted them to get an empty lot when they foreclosed. More and more people want to go out in a blaze of glory (pardon the pun) nowadays. Media feeds right into 'em, too, with their non-stop coverage of even the most minor things. Not that this was minor. Have to admit my first thought was another terrorist attack, too. Sad sign of the times, I suppose;
So Tigger has made his statement about what happened. Whoop-de-doo. Like have said before, this should be between him and The Mrs. Have read comments saying he's being selfish for having the "press conference" on a Friday, a day when the tour is playing. Other comments include he's taking away from the Olympics. Hard to believe all the major networks covered this sham live, not to mention all the cable stations. If that's what the public wants, then shame on us. S'posedly the reason he had the conference when he did was cuz he has to head back to rehab after a week-long break. Wonder why he couldn't have waited until he was done to make his statement/apology? Could be just another step in the rehab process. Might have been more interested if the lapdog pressmen that attended could have asked questions. Probably not since they would have most likely asked wiffle-ball questions. Sure the press will do the bathroom dance again when he finally plays in a tournament, then again when he wins. Can hardly wait...;
A friend of mine posted this on Facebook the other day: People will always be more violently opposed to the wearing of fur than leather for the simple reason that it's far safer to harass rich women than biker gangs. Think about it;

That's all I got for now. Interested to hear what you might have to say. Might give me a different angle to think about. Not such a bad thing sometimes. Please feel free to leave a comment below or shoot me an e-mail at ScotPS23@yahoo.com

Y'all keep 'em straight out there.

Back to Randomness

2010-02-16T22:28:00.000-06:00

Things just keep getting curiouser and curiouser every day. It's snowing more in Alabama than it is in Vancouver. The Obama administration is sounding more like the W administration than they would probably care to admit. All sorts of crazy things. With that in mind, got some thoughts to get out of my head. Please feel free to continue if you're curious.

OK. You've been warned:

Well, happy to report that January thunder did in fact bring February snow to our neck of the woods. Had about 3 inches of snow on Friday; a trace of snow Sunday night; then about an inch Monday evening. Most snow folks around here can remember for at least 15 years. You can insert your own global warming joke here;
Read an article where the current administration says people who criticize it are actually playing into the hands of Al Qaeda. Hmmm. Where have we heard that before? Guess the more things change, the more they stay the same;
Robert Gibbs made fun of Sarah Palin writing notes on her hand the other day. Now, not saying she doesn't deserve some ribbing for what she did. But, would think that president's spokesman would be above that. Surely they don't see her as a threat to their administration, do they? Hope not. Would think they'd be more worried about creating jobs, fighting terrorists, and multitude of other things than someone who has to write notes on their hand;
Very sad to see Captain Phil Harris died last week. Fans of the show will remember he had a blood clot break loose from his lung two years ago. He was lucky to have survived that. Last reports were that he was recovering well from his stroke. Then we get the news about his death. Just shows how fragile life really is, and that we should be prepared to go at any time;
Have been amazed at not only my reaction but the reaction of the public at large to Capt Phil's passing on. There's been a huge outpouring of support and a real sense of loss from fans of Deadliest Catch, which isn't a surprise. What's amazing is how much we feel like we actually know Phil, Josh and Jake (and all the others) just from watching them an hour a week on a TV show. Would venture to say we know a lot less about them than we actually know. Tells me what a great job the producers of the show really do, and that they've made it more about the personalities than the fishing;
Supposedly there was $82.7 million legally bet on the Super Bowl this year, and Vegas cleared $6.86 million. The article said both numbers were actually down this year cuz people didn't play the side bets such as who wins the toss, scores the first touchdown, etc., as much as in years past. Side effects of the economy, I reckon. Wonder if they will be asking for a stimulus package?;
Completed my taxes a couple of weeks ago. Have already received my federal refund. All the state will tell me is they have approved my refund, they will send it to me as "funds will allow," and they appreciate my patience. Wonder if I could get away with that with them? Somehow doubt they would be as patient as they want me to be;
According to my useless trivia up top, male Indian elephants are not interested in the opposite sex until they are 21 years old. Probably lots of human parents who wish their children were the same way. You're reading the thoughts of one of 'em;
Speaking of things up top, the quote the other day was, "History will be kind to me for I intend to write it," credited to Sir Winston Churchill. Shows what confidence he had as a leader. Also a reminder that the victors are the ones who get to write history;
Saw where Louis Gossett, Jr. has prostate cancer. Not sure what stage it is in, but am lifting prayers up for him and his family. Shows how important it is that men get checked for it. Like many cancers, it can be beat if you catch it soon enough;
Wonder if Mardi Gras in New Orleans was a little wilder this year? (Is that even possible?) Imagine they're still riding the high of winning the Super Bowl so it probably was.

Well, that's all for now. Hope you enjoyed it, or, at the very least, might have something different to think about now.

Y'all have a great week!

100 Things About Me - Part One (aka: 1 - 50)

2010-02-15T00:30:00.000-06:00

Have seen this thing called 100 Things About Myself going around the blogger world. Thought I'd take a crack at it even though it's probably a little self-indulgent. Will start out with 50 so you won't get too tired of reading. Know quite a few people reading this already know me, or, at least think they do. But, might throw something out there you didn't know about me. Heck, might even learn something myself. Will try not to mention anything you'd rather not have known. If I do, hope you'll continue to be my friend, anyway. So, if you're interested, here we go:

Was born June 15, 1968, in Mobile, AL, also the birthplace of Mardi Gras in the US. (Sorry NOLA friends, you only resurrected it first after the Civil War);
Married since 1996 to my wonderful wife, Stacey
Have boy/girl twins who were born in 2001. You'd be surprised how many times I've been asked if they are identical;
Although was born in the South, have lived here a majority of my life, and am dang proud to be a Southerner, will tell folks I grew up in Towanda, IL, cuz that's where we were during my formative years;
Hobbies include golf, deer hunting, and fishing, or at least they used to be. Now they are attending my son's sports games and my daughter's cheerleading events, playing with them when I am at home, exercising, and toodling around on the computer. Really enjoy my new hobbies, but wish I had time to do the originals every now and then;
Both of my parents are still alive as are both of my grandparents on my momma's side. Am truly blessed all around to still have all of them;
Am a Christian;
Member of First Baptist Church of Trussville;
Graduated from W.A. Berry High School (it's now Hoover High for all you Two-A-Days fans);
Have a history degree from the University of Alabama. Roll Tide;
Read the Bible just about every night. Wife bought me an archeological Bible for Christmas this year. Have learned a lot from it so far;
Love a good debate (NOTE - debate, not argument) every now and then. The subject don't really matter as long as I learn something from it;
Have a tendency to be a smartalec. Because of the dry nature of my wit, people can't always tell whether I am joking or being serious. Sometimes I really enjoy that ambiguity;
Love Clint Eastwood movies, especially the westerns;
Love the entire Lonesome Dove series of novels/mini-series;
Favorite animals: Tigers (an odd thing for an Alabama graduate) and ducks
Am in TV heaven right now since Biggest Loser, Amazing Race, Pawn Stars, Ax Men, Madhouse, and the granddaddy of them all, Survivor, are now on the air. Will reach the next level of TV heaven when Deadliest Catch is back on the air with them;
Really gonna miss Captain Phil Harris of the F/V Cornelia Marie. Have some more thoughts to share on that in my next random subjects blog;
Drive a 2007 Toyota Tundra;
Favorite vehicle I ever owned was a 1994 4-wheel drive Chevy S-10;
Duck Hill, MS, is one of my favorite places on earth. Used to deer hunt there when I was a kid;
Worked on my grandfather's farm in Sarah, MS, for four summers growing up. Wouldn't trade those experiences for anything in the world;
Favorite food: Grandmama's apple pie. That's all I'm gonna say about that;
Second favorite food: Sushi from Yamato's in Pensacola, FL. Used to be like Terry Bradshaw when it came to sushi. (You know, "they call that bait where I come from") A friend of mine had me try it when I was in Miami once. Been hooked ever since. Yamato's has the best I've ever eaten;
Have met family all the way up to my great, great grandmother. Think I was 5 or 6 when she died at the tender age of 98. Her daughter (my great grandmother) was 93 when she passed. Her daughter was mentioned in # 6. Hope my longetevity gene comes from that side of the family;
Can't always tell it, especially when you read this blog, but I minored in English. Bet my ninth grade English teacher, Mrs. Hughes, wouldn't be happy to read this blog. She got mad whenever we would say 'tin' instead of 'ten' for the number 10. She was still one of my all-time favorite teachers, though;
Not a very formal person. Probably already figured that out, though;
Although I know the South had no chance of winning and we were dang fools for actually starting it, will still refer to the Civil War as the War of Northern Aggression when I'm in a playful mood;
Abraham Lincoln is my second favorite president. Few people could have saved the US like he did. Went to his memorial while in DC. Took my hat off when I saw his statue and didn't realize it until I put it back on. Only time can remember ever doing anything like that;
Would rather you think I'm not the brightest bulb in the bunch than think I'm a genius. Realize that might not be much of a stretch for most of you;
Have lived in Mobile, AL, Bloomington, IL, Towanda, IL, Knoxville, TN, Hoover, AL, Mobile, AL and Trussville, AL;
Been known to sing in public, on purpose. Ain't been booed off the stage, yet, but don't know why;
Although I claim to be independent, have a tendency to vote Republican. Did vote for Ross Perot back in 1992, though;
Will usually write in a candidate whenever I'm not real happy with whoever's on the ballot. Voted for my college bud Scott C for state supreme court once. Now that he's moved to California, usually vote for my friend David V in the local/state elections. Will still vote Scott for president, though, although we are on opposite ends of the political spectrum;
George Washington is my favorite president. Hard to top the original cuz he could have turned it into a kingship if he were a lessor person. Glad he didn't;
Believe the ancients were actually a lot smarter than we are today. We could never build the things they did today without a computer, calculator, or some other sort of technology not available back then. Ronald Reagan once said, "We might not have had those things. But it took our generation to make them" in response to some kid asking him how RR's generation could understand the younger generation when they didn't have many of today's amenities. Think that applies to many prior generations;
Sometimes I wonder if we really are better off than our ancestors;
Love Milk Duds and Milky Ways;
Would sit down and eat a gallon Cold Stone Creamery's Cookie Doughn't You Want Some if my wife would let me;
Have enjoyed jogging a lot more than I thought I would, but don't think I want to run much further than a 5K;
People seem to follow me but ain't figured out why, yet. Maybe they are just curious to see where the monkey is going;
If it weren't for my wife, might not have a personal laptop or cell phone, yet;
Always glad when I realize new friends are now old friends but wonder when the exact moment is that the transition is made;
Learned a lot more about corporate life while working on the farm than you would think. Will have to write a specific blog about that someday;
Often wonder when all this gray hair showed up. Gonna blame it on the time I had hi-lights put in my hair. Don't ask;
Got nine tattoos: Calvin and Hobbes, a mallard, Taz, Yosemite Sam, a Christian fish, a black panther, a smallmouth bass, the Japanese symbol for twins, and the Japanese symbol for deer;
Few things warm my heart more than listening to my children sing and/or hum;
College was four of the best years of my life but don't think I would want to relive them;
Can't think of many things in my life I would change if I could have a do-over;
Hope to drive the Alaska Highway someday.

Well, that's all for now. Not as easy as you would think. Will finish in the next week or two. Will have a random thoughts post before the week is out.

I am outta here.

Rest In Peace, Captain Phil

2010-02-09T23:22:00.000-06:00

Rest in Peace, Captain Phil.

God must have needed another crab boat captain.

The world will miss you.

Thoughts and prayers for his family and friends.

A Whole Lot of Another

2010-02-08T23:51:00.000-06:00

Been lots of interesting things in the news here lately. Everybody must be trying to get things in before the Super Bowl since things always seem slow down afterwards. So, if I can thaw my fingers out, will try to give you a little food for thought if nothing else. Here we go:

Man! What a Super Bowl! Didn't care a whole lot who won. Only hoped for a good game, and it was delivered. Was glad to see the Saints pull it off. They and their fans certainly deserve it after 43 years of heartache. They played a great game and Sean Payton showed he wasn't just glad to be there. Calling for an on-sides kick to start the 2nd half took some real courage. WHO DAT!!!;
Thought this year's ads were just kind of OK. Liked the Doritos ad where the kid told the man not to touch his mama or his Doritos. Didn't realize the Tebow ad was on until he tackled his mother and had to rewind it to pay attention to it. Like many other things in life, it was much ado about nothing. Certainly wasn't as controversial as you would have thought. Think some groups decided to "protest" it beforehand just to get their name in the papers. Can't always believe the hype, I reckon. Imagine that. Did read where one group said tackling his mother encourages violence against women. Guess they had to complain about something since the ad didn't live up to other expectations. Would think most people are smart enough to see the humor in it and don't think the ad is saying it's OK to tackle women, especially your mother;
Did anyone know we are apparently fighting in Pakistan now? Or, at least we have sent "advisers" there. (Ain't that how we got started in Vietnam?) Anywho, three were killed in a suicide bombing the other day. Looks like the reigning Nobel Peace prize winner may be expanding the war on terror, or, whatever they are calling it these days. (Apparently that phrase is a no-no with the White House and its staff.) Anyway, not saying there's anything necessarily wrong with it. Just wondered if you knew about it;
Read where Michelle Obama is catching some flak about using her daughters as examples in her fight against childhood obesity. Said might be setting them up for eating disorders and/or poor self-esteem later in life. Think as long as she keeps it in proper perspective for them, they will be OK. If the doctor said they need to lose a little weight, she should be praised for trying to do something about it (as long as she didn't do anything out of the ordinary) instead of ignoring the problem. Shouldn't be anything wrong with using a personal example, either. Just hope they don't turn it around later and say they don't want their children to be in the spotlight. Can't expect to have it both ways if you are going to put them out there yourself. That don't mean someone should go out of their way to put them out there in a bad way, though;
Sarah Palin spoke at the Tea Party convention over the weekend. Had notes written on her hand like she was cheating on a civics test in high school. Not sure about all the particulars as to why she wrote on her hand and not on note cards. Maybe she thought of something she wanted to be be sure to mention as she was walking to the stage. Don't know. But, it don't look real good. Not very professional at best. Mostly unprepared at worst. Just something someone already looked down upon by the media should consider;
Read some speculation the other day that the Feds are being tough on Toyota since they are competition for Government Motors (that's what some folks are calling General Motors nowadays). Since we the people own most of GM now, it will help our bottom line to make the competition look bad anytime they can. Not saying I necessarily buy it, but some interesting food for thought;
Hard to believe NASCAR has started back up again. Got the Daytona 500 this weekend. Looks like Danica Patrick will run in the Nationwide (one step below the Sprint Cup in case you don't know) race on Saturday. Could be interesting. Hope she does well. The sport could use a little boost. Lost interest myself last year when they flat out caught Jimmy Johnson and Mark Martin cheating in a Chase race and did nothing about it. Both cars were about an inch lower than NASCAR allows. Don't sound like much, but it was a race they totally dominated over the rest of the field so it must have been something. If they allow the drivers to start racing again instead of just driving around in circles, will probably watch again this year. Will have to see;
Read an interesting snippet on Dale Earnhardt, Jr, this week. Someone asked him if he had to win to be a central figure in the sport. His reply: "Apparently not." Purty astute if you ask me. Hasn't won a race in a couple of years, and he's still the most popular driver, probably for no other reason than who his daddy was and how he died. Think all he wants to do is race and be himself. Too many other folks want him to be his daddy reincarnated, and that ain't fair to him. Ain't but one Ironhead and there won't ever be another. If you ask me, all of The Intimidator's fans should have gone to Tony "Smoke" Stewart. He's the closest thing out there to Number 3. Anyway, hope Jr has a good year this year. While Smoke is my favorite driver, will be rooting for anyone but Jimmy this year;
Certainly been some odd weather around the country this year. Heard last year that if there's thunder in January, there will be snow in February. Well, we had thunder around here in January. Will see if it happens this year. Had thunder last year and snow on March 1, which was purty close. Had some snow flurries Saturday and Sunday. Might have to count that. One odd thing is, with all the snow we're having in the States, read they are having to haul snow in for the Olympic snowboarding events next week in Canada. Strange days indeed.

Well, that's all I got fer now. Thanks for hanging in this long. Y'all have a good'n!

Later.

This, That and The Other

2010-02-04T21:34:00.002-06:00

Usually only update once a week. But, have run across some more things I feel the need to comment on so gonna think out loud again this week. Hope you enjoy:

Don't know about where you live, but there was a bunch of riggamoroll around here on National Signing Day Wednesday. In case you don't know, that's the first day high school football recruits can officially accept their scholarship offers. The way folks have been carrying on, you'd think we were having a presidential election. Take that back, think they were more interested in what was going on than they would be in an election. You got high schools having assemblies and press conferences (including national media) for these kids to announce their decisions. All this for 17-18 year old kids who ain't proved nothing except they were purty good high school players. It's no wonder some athletes feel such an sense of entitlement sometimes. And, we got nobody but ourselves to blame for it, either;
Heard where the Secretary of Transportation told Toyota owners to stop driving their vehicles this week if it was part of the recall then said later that's not what he really meant. When I read the first comment, figured it was gonna create a panic and overload the dealerships. Was not surprised to see him crawfish a little later in the day. Now, he made the first statement while testifying to Congress why he had actually been proactive in this whole mess. So, here's what probably really happened: He was puffing his chest out to Congress about how tough he's really been on Toyota then let his mouth get away from him. Classic case of speaking before you're really thinking. Hope he learns a lesson from this;
Speaking of opening mouth and inserting foot, see where President Obama has made the people of Nevada mad again by sort of bad-mouthing Vegas. Twice in less than a year. Didn't really think it was much of a slam against Vegas as much as it was gambling in general. But, he mentioned it by name so now they're thinking fewer tourists will be coming out. Can't help but think he wouldn't be saying the same thing if Vegas were in New York or California. You know, the states with a whole bunch of electoral votes? Just saying;
Read where a Dennis Zeglin from New Jersey plead guilty to shooting his African Grey parrot during a NASCAR race last year just cuz the bird wouldn't shut up during a race. Yup. Shot him three times with a BB gun. And, brace yourself, authorities think alcohol may have been involved. Go figure. Anyway, think it was his wife who turned him in. Now, this wouldn't surprise me as much if he lived somewhere's here in the South. Just goes to show there's rednecks everywhere in this great land of ours;
Looks like the bad data bug is biting another "scientific" study. Turns out the docs who wrote a paper on MMR vaccinations being a possible cause of autism purposely overlooked a lot of info that didn't agree with what they were trying to prove. Caused a lot of worry and fear for who knows why. Maybe they did it for fame or trying to get more research money. Whatever the whyfore, it wasn't good enough. Just another example of my theory that you have to know someone's motives for a poll, survey, research, etc., before you take their data at face value. If they start out with the answer before they start asking the questions, the questions just might skew towards the result they want rather than being objective. Just food for thought. By the way, do hope they find the cause some day;
Read an interview with Bill Waterson, the creator of Calvin and Hobbes, one of the greatest comic strips ever. The article said it was his first interview since 1989, and it was via an e-mail Q and A. Said he has no regrets stopping in 1995. (Man, has it really been that long?) Just wanted to go out while he was still on top. Although I wish he would have kept it up, can respect his decision to quit. Can think of more than one example of someone who should have quit before they did. That being said, Mr. Waterson, anytime you want to come back, please feel free to do so. This is one fan who will never get tired of your work;
Yes, that is a tattoo of Calvin and Hobbes on my right upper arm as my profile picture. It's from a Sunday cartoon where they were dancing to classical music (1812 Overture, I think). The tattoo artist took a picture of it when he finished and it was actually published in a magazine. Used to have a copy of it somewhere. Besides being a tribute to the strip, the tattoo is to remind me you can find fun in anything if you try hard enough;
If you are a Deadliest Catch fan, you may be interested to know that Captain Phil Harris (F.V. Cornelia Marie) had a stroke the other day. Fortunately, he was in port when it happened. Last report was he's doing well. He can squeeze peoples' hands and talk. Even told the doctor, "Don't $@#^ up!" Get well soon, Capt Phil! Will keep you in my prayers;
The NFL tried to get people to stop selling "Who Dat" paraphernalia in relation to the Saints since they weren't getting their cut. Claimed they had the rights to the saying since people were saying it bout the Saints. Needless to say, there were a lot of folks hacked off in New Orleans. Now, I've heard that expression has been around long before the NFL was even a glint in somebody's eye. First time I can remember it being used with the Saints was when the song Who Dat came out in the mid-80's. Glad to report someone somewhere with the NFL finally got some smarts about 'em and decided they didn't have the rights to that saying after all. Somebody must have checked the trademark office and saw somebody else had it first. Glad to see the little guys can win sometimes;
Saw where Herschel Walker is an MMA (mixed-martial arts) fighter now. Said he won his first fight Saturday night. Knowing what a natural athlete he is, imagine he's probably purty good at it. At 47 he's probably not in Brock Lesnar's (one of the current world champions) league, but likely still purty dang good and impressive. As odd as this sounds, he probably doesn't get enough credit for being as great an all-around athlete that he truly is.

Well, that's all I got for now. Hope you are having a good week. By the way, thanks to my bud Janet for filling me in on what "jump the shark" is in reference to. Talking about when Fonzie water ski-jumped over a shark in one of the later episodes of Happy Days. You know, the episodes that weren't as good as the first several seasons? So now when a show has faded from glory and/or is searching desperately for storylines, they are referred to as having "jumped the shark." Thanks for the info, J!

Later.

A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That

2010-02-01T23:12:00.000-06:00

Been an interesting week in the news. Lots of stories in the news ranging from sports, politics and entertainment. Got my own opinion to share on some of 'em. If it ain't in line with yours, might at least give you a different angle to think about, anyway. So, if you're interested, here we go:

Before we get started, was watching TV with my son the other day. Some commercial with a remake of The Beatles' "All You Need is Love" came on. My son said it was a "real catchy" song. Replied that's probably why it's been popular for pert near 40 years. He was amazed it was that old. That's the problem with getting older, you see very little that is new and actually impresses you. Ah, to be young again and discovering things in the world;
Been reading about all the hoopla surrounding Tim Tebow's Super Bowl commercial. To be honest, not real sure why some folks are upset about it. After all, we do have a little something called "freedom of speech" in this here country. If they have the money to run a counter to it, more power to 'em. If CBS declines to run it, then you might have something to complain about. Anyway, doubt the ad will change many opinions about the subject. Most people are purty dug in on whichever side they are on so they won't be budging. More surprised there hasn't been much hullaballoo about CBS turning down an ad for a gay dating website. When I read the storyline of the ad (it ends with two guys making out on a couch), wasn't so surprised they turned it down. Not sure many people would want to see that. Lots o' folks are open-minded on that subject, but that don't mean they want to see it, not to mention the folks who ain't so open-minded about it;
Saw where J.D. Salinger died last week. Tried to read Catcher in the Rye when I was in college. Had a difficult time getting into it and don't think I even finished. Interesting thing to me is most of the stories I read about him always talk about what a recluse he was. Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird) has the same kind of stories written about her. Guess the media folks have a hard time accepting not everyone is hungry for fame. Must be an anomaly for them cuz they're used to dealing with narcissistic egomaniacs most of the time. Not sure about Mr. Salinger, but have heard from people who know that Ms. Lee is just an ordinary person who wants to live her life like most other normal folks. Ain't a thing in the world wrong with that, either;
Heard where President Obama wants to do away with the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Got no problem with that. Times have changed a lot since the military decided to ban gays and lesbians. Now, have to admit have never served in the military myself so not sure what, if any, effect it will have on unit morale. However, there were also huge outcries when women, blacks, and other groups were first allowed to join. Now, most people don't think twice about it. Reckon this might happen here, too. Truth is there are already gay folks in the military so it shouldn't be that much of an adjustment. Most straight folks I know who are leary of gays are worried they're gonna get hit on. Have several friends I know who are gay and several others I suspect but have never asked and they ain't tellin', either. None have ever hit on me and feel comfortable when they are around my children. In other words, like many other fears, has more to do with what you don't know rather than having a legitimate reason to fear or hate. Imagine it will all work out in the long run;
Looks like there's finally a issue both sides of the political aisle can work together on. The president's office announced they are going to look into getting a playoff for Division One (or whatever it's called now) college football. This all got started when Republican Orrin Hatch got his panties in a wad cuz Utah wasn't in the championship game last year, or at least given a piece of the championship since they were undefeated. Glad to know we've solved all our minor issues such as the economy, unemployment, health care reform, two wars, terrorism, et al. What's that? You say we haven't solved those things, yet?! Surely they have or they wouldn't distract themselves with petty issues like a football playoff? Man o' man;
Kurt Warner has decided to retire from the NFL. His story is the true American dream. As Carl the Greenskeeper use to say, "A true Cinderella story. Coming out of nowhere to win..." To go from making $5.50/hour as a grocery clerk to winning the MVP and the Super Bowl the next year is truly amazing. Will be a long time before his story is duplicated. Sure he will hit the speechifying circuit sharing his faith (very devout Christian) now. Good luck in retirement, Kurt;
Went out to eat the other night and ran into an old college friend I haven't seen in close to 20 years. Weird thing is, since we've 'talked' on Facebook over the last year or so, we didn't feel the need to sit there and chat in a loud restaurant trying to catch up on the last 20 years in 5 minutes or less. Another example of the power of the internet;
Realized the other day have only watched one episode of American Idol this year, and haven't really missed it that much, either. Might get more interested in it once the finals start. Don't know. Not a big fan of Ellen DeGeneres so maybe not. Possibly after Biggest Loser is over. We'll see. Think the biggest problem with the show is, outside of Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood, none of the winners have really struck it big. Some who were culled from the herd have done OK such as Chris Daughtry and Clay Aiken, but that ain't quite the same. Think once Simon leaves the show, it will have really jumped the shark. (What exactly does that really mean, anyway? What does this expression have to do with something not being popular, anymore?);
Added a link to a blog called You're So Vain (link here and over to the left). It's a lady in Northern Virginia who posts photos of a different vanity plate every day. Pretty neat if you ask me. Must be lots of them plates around there. Not sure I could find a different one every day in my neck of the woods. Found it just hitting the Next Blog button at the very top of the page.

All I got fer now. Thanks for making it to the end with me. If you know where "jump the shark" originated and/or why, please leave a comment or shoot me an e-mail. Please feel free to leave any other comments, too.

Y'all have a great week!

Gapses in the Synapses

2010-01-25T23:49:00.001-06:00

Have a veritable smorgasboard of material to cover this go around. Subjects ranging from politics to the power of TV to sports, among other things. So, if you're game, here we go:

Want to know the true power of television? My son had been playing his Nintendo DS in the living room all morning with the TV turned off. I went into the kitchen to fix myself some breakfast and turned the TV in there on while I was eating. He came in the room, while still playing his game, just to listen to the show I was watching. It was a show about the different stages the earth went through as it was being formed, too. Riveting television for a nine year old. He didn't leave until I turned it back off, either. Reckon only got myself to blame for that;
If you have any political ambitions, better make sure you know your local sports teams. According to David Gergen, a well-respected political analyst, part of the reason the Dem lost in Massachusetts was cuz she didn't know who Curt Schilling is. She was asked during a radio call-in show about him, and she apparently made some comment about him being a Yankee fan. Per Mr. Gergen, the fact she didn't know who the hero of the 2004 Red Sawx is didn't set well with the Sawx fans and probably cost her a bunch of votes. Just never know what may appeal to or turn off voters. We sure are fickle sometimes. Who says we only care about the issues?;
Know this will sound crass, but if there's anything positive coming out of the whole Haiti crisis, it's that celebrities have something to rally around now. Been worried about them since they don't have W to kick around any more. Didn't watch the Hope for Haiti stuff last week, but it wasn't cuz it was hard to find on TV. Counted at least 7 stations that were covering it, including the major networks. Read the concert has raised almost $58 million so far and it's still coming in. Did see an article today saying overall donations for Haiti are already slowing down. Guess we've almost reached our saturation point. Talk about a short collective attention span;
Read an article saying the best gift you can give is cash if you are interested in donating for Haiti. Have to say I agree with that. Was down on the Gulf Coast for nine months after Katrina hit. Saw piles of water, food, clothing and diapers still outside a lot of facilities when I left from there. At some point, they are going to need to start purchasing building supplies and other things. A lot easier to do that with cash instead of diapers. Also easier to ship cash to Haiti than actual supplies;
Saw where Grant Desme, one of the Oakland A's top prospects, is leaving pro baseball for the priesthood. Have to admire someone who will give up potential millions to follow his heart. He was the MVP of his league last year so he obviously had potential. Said he had been conflicted since he turned pro and now he's at peace within himself. The article I read said there is 10 years of training involved to be a priest. Never knew there was that much to it, but, then again, ain't Catholic, either. You go, Grant, and God bless;
Did you watch the NFL conference championships this weekend? As much as Brett Favre has aggravated me this year (well, more the media covering him than him), have to admit he played a whale of a game while pretty much getting his brains beat out for most of it. Wish could say it's surprising his last pass was an interception, but it ain't. The game was his career in a nutshell. Great plays because of the risks he's willing to take along with bonehead plays for the same reason. Excited to see the Saints and Colts in the Super Bowl. Can honestly say will be happy with whoever wins. Da Bears are home watching, too, and am fans of both Peyton Manning and the Saints;
Saw where Pernell Roberts died today at the age of 82. Loved him in Trapper John, M.D. Was also pretty good in Bonanza. The article I read said he marched with Martin Luther King, Jr, somewhere in Alabama. Selma, I believe. He also protested having an all-white stage crew for Bonanza. Never knew he was that big into the civil rights movement. Not a bad legacy for an old Georgia boy;
Was looking at my map today and saw where someone from Istanbul, Turkey, had visited the blog. Purty cool. Wish it would tell me how long they were on the page. Sometimes I will click on the "Next Blog" link at the very top of the page to see what else is out there. Imagine that's what happened here. Most of the websites are in other languages. Oddly enough, most I run across are in Portugese. Reckon that shouldn't be much of a surprise since the Portugese settled the half of the New World that the Spainsih didn't. A translation button comes up so can translate any that really look interesting to me. Still, gives you some perspective on just how global the internet really is.

Well, that's all I got for now. Appreciate you making it this far. Hope you have a great week!

And, I am outta here!

We're Not Gonna Take It

2010-01-21T17:32:00.001-06:00

Been reading a lot of analysis on this whole Massachusetts-election thing. Have had a chance to ruminate on what happened and why and thought I'd share my thoughts on it for what they're worth. These opinions apply to both parties so please don't think I'm trying to single either party out:

Think what both parties are overlooking is, in the grand scheme of things, neither one represents the whole country. In fact, would venture to say neither one of them even represent half of the country. A majority of folks probably consider themselves independent from both parties. We just have to vote for one of the two major parties cuz that's all we really got to choose from. But, whenever a party gets the majority in Congress and/or the White House, they automatically think the whole country only cares about what they have to say. "We have been given a mandate by the American people!" to which I say "Bullfeathers! You have, but not what you think!" The real mandate is we're looking for folks to get along and actually get something done that makes a lot of folks happy, not just one party. When they overlook their counterparts on the other side of the aisle, they aren't listening to a large number of citizens in our great land, which angers a lot more people than makes happy. The term 'compromise' seems to have died when Henry Clay did.

In the specific case of health care reform, think most people in the country realize reform is needed and want to see it done. However, they are not happy with this particular brand of reform being forced down their throat. It appears they are more worried about getting something passed than getting the right thing passed. Besides, if this reform is 'The Answer,' why won't it apply to Congress, too? Seems to me (and others) like they would want this health care themselves if it's as great as they say it is. Anyway, I digress...

The politicians usually make the basic excuse that people opposing their ideas are just angry hate-mongers who don't love their country. Well, they're partially right. People are angry all right. But it ain't cuz they're hate mongers who hate their country. It's cuz they love their country and they are tired of being ignored!

Politicians from both sides usually say they are going to be bipartisan and work with the other party in the spirit of togetherness while they are campaigning. However, what they really mean to say is, they are going to be bye-partisan, and tell the other side to kiss their behind cuz we're in control now. We've all heard politicans on both sides of the aisle say these things just in the last 15 years or so. In fact, this philosophy has been around since the beginning of our great country. So, it shouldn't be much of a surprise to anyone when that's how it ends up going down.

Was Tuesday's vote a vote against President Obama or the system? My answer would be the system as polls seem to indicate folks generally like him although they are not real sure about his policies right now. The key to any election is how many independent voters show up, what they want, and who they vote for. Say right now, as always, they just want to be listened to. As long as neither party chooses to believe this, we will keep bouncing from side to side with the optimistic hope they actually mean it this time. Maybe this election will serve as a wake-up call for both parties, but somehow doubt it will.

As always, thank you for your time. And, I'm interested in what you think about all this, whether you agree with me or not. Please feel free to leave a comment or send me an e-mail.

Things in the News

2010-01-19T23:24:00.000-06:00

Been some interesting things in the news over the last week. Have some comments on a few of them. So, if you're interested, here we go:

The Democrats lost the senate seat formerly occupied by Ted Kennedy. Shouldn't be that much of a surprise. If memory serves right, seems like he had to struggle to win his last election. Shows what happens when people take things for granted. The Republican ran on the mantra the seat belongs to the people, not Ted Kennedy. Have read the Dem didn't do a whole lot in the beginning cuz she thought she was a shoo-in for the seat cuz he did. Time they figured out she wasn't, it was too late. Guess people are still wanting change. Politics are a lot like sports, the fan favorite is usually the guy sitting on the bench when they don't like what's happening on the field. (Independents are a fickle bunch) Even though the Republicans got rid of the supermajority, they still only have 41 votes. Will be interesting to see how this affects President Obama's agenda and what happens later in the year during the mid-term elections;
The governor of our great state is agin legalizing casinos cuz he believes gamblin's immoral. Alabama has set up a task force under his watch to get rid of illegal gambling in the state. Anyway, the head of the task force won $2,500 (legally) in a Mississippi casino last week and had to resign. Guess it's wasn't immoral to him, anyway. Yet another politician with the do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do syndrome. Purty sad;
See where the president wants to tax banks to get the TARP money back from 'em. Just have one question, where does he think they will get the money from? That's right. Most likely it will come from increased fees being paid by the customers and reduced interest being paid to the customers. Banks move money, they don't create it;
Lots o' coverage about the Haiti earthquake, and rightly so. However, won't be too long before Americans will reach their saturation point and start tuning it out. Whenever I get onto CNN.com on my iPhone (which shows fewer stories), all the news stories are on the earthquake. Not that there's anything wrong with continuous coverage, but there are other things going on in the world folks probably need to know about;
Saw where Danny Glover blamed global warming for the earthquake. Read the article several times and still not sure what his angle was. Said something about the earth warming caused the quake (hard to believe he really thinks that), but think mostly he was saying it was retribution for nothing getting accomplished in Copenhagen. Can't help but wonder why he didn't get the same press Pat Robertson got for his comments. Guess preachers are easier targets;
Favorite Facebook post over the weekend: Romo on the ground, Romo on the ground, Looking like a fool with Romo on the ground! (Thanks, Donnie P!) Not sure if it was copied or original, but thought it was purty funny. Picked all four games and got three of them wrong. Guess that's why this ain't a sports blog, for the most part. Any offers to pick against your favorite team this weekend?

Well, that's all the time have for now. Just needed to get a few things out of me noodle.

As always, thanks for reading. Added a new blog link over on the left-hand side. Please feel free to check it out along with the others. Hope you enjoy the daily quotes and useless knowledge at the top, too.

Peace out!

Haiti Earthquake Relief

2010-01-13T21:35:00.000-06:00

(If you are interested in contributing to the Haiti relief fund, the easiest way is by texting 90999 ($10) or 501501 ($5). If you are a little leary of doing that, here is the link to the Snopes.com confirmation that they are legit.)

Sure most of you have heard about the 7.0 earthquake in Haiti yesterday. Such devastation. Just saw one estimate that up to 500,000 may have died. Always hard to make accurate predictions about that this early in the game. But, pictures on various news sources have showed bodies being piled up in the streets so you know there are lots of casualties. Obviously, thoughts and prayers are going out to the victims from all around the world.

When you think about it, it seems odd that these buildings have survived multiple Category 5 hurricanes, but were not able to survive an earthquake. Just shows man cannot completely outsmart the Higher Force.

Speaking of that, saw where Pat Robertson has already come out saying this was punishment for a "pact with the Devil" Haitians made when they won their independence from France back in the early 1800's. Not going to argue with Pat cuz it's up to the Higher Force to pass judgement on what he says. Will say might have waited a little bit before he said it, though.

Anyway, there are multiple ways you can contribute, if you'd like. Texted 90999 to donate $10 to the Red Cross myself. It will be added to my monthly bill. If you are interested but are a little leary of a possible scam, you can click on this link , which will take to the Snopes.com page confirming it's legit. They also confirmed the Wyclef Jean fund (501501) to have $5 added to your bill if you prefer that. Of course, prayers are always good, too.

May God provide comfort to those left behind in Haiti and to those outside of Haiti looking for loved ones.

Random Randomness

2010-01-11T23:40:00.001-06:00

All right. Got quite a few things to throw out there ranging from politics to sports to reality TV. So, gonna get right to it this time around:

Been hearing a lot about this whole mess with Harry Reid and his comments about President Obama a couple of years ago. Have to say he should probably be embarassed about the comments, but not sure if he should have to step down or not. Besides, if the polls are correct, he won't be around next year, anyway, as the voters in the Great State of Nevada don't appear too happy with him right now. And that was before all this mess came out. Can't help but think if a Republican had made the comments, even about a black Republican, the media and others would howl until they had someone's head on a platter. Anyway, the Republicans have just been waiting to jump on someone since Trent Lott was run out in 2002. (Not sure that was the right thing in 2002, either.) Don't really think Reid's comments were on the same level as Lott's, for that matter. Besides, if every politician who said something stupid were run out, we would have no politicians. Hmmm, come to think of it, might not be a bad idea after all.
Read an interesting article on climate cooling today. Said we go through 20-30 year cycles of climate cooling and warming. Right now we are transitioning from a heating trend to a cooling one (December 2009 was the 14th coolest in the last 115 years), and we should expect to have winters like this for the next 20-30 years. Has something to do with ocean currents. Have attached a link to the article right here cuz don't think I can do it much justice and think you should decide fer yerself what you believe or don't believe. Two things which struck me are: 1. The Arctic ice is growing again, and 2., folks were saying the same things back in the 1920's that the AlGore's of the world today have been saying. Seeing as how I'm presenting this article (here again) for your perusement, should give you a hint on how I feel about it;
So, Mark McGwire used steroids. I'm shocked! Shocked! I tell you! Yeah, right. Not really sure how I feel about it. Still takes a lot of talent to hit a 90+ mile an hour fastball a long way. Ain't no steroid or human growth hormone gonna help your hand/eye co-ordination enough to make an average ball player into a home run hittin' king. But, ain't gonna say it won't enhance someone who already has the talent to do it like Mark McGwire or Barry Bonds, either. All of this justifies what Jose Conseco has been saying for years but people wanted to ignore cuz they either didn't like Jose or just didn't want to believe him. You know, even a broke clock is right twice a day (well, at least the old-fashioned kind with a real face and hands);
See where Pete Carroll is getting out of Dodge. Sure, Pete, the fact that USC is probably going to NCAA jail and your AD is ready to throw you to the wolves had absolutely nothing to do with your sudden decision to go back to the NFL. Whatever...;
The wife and I watched Axmen and Madhouse on the History Channel last night. Axmen is about logging bidness folks in Oregon and Louisiana. The dudes on that show make the Deadliest Catch crews look like they've been to finishin' school. Think of the craziest person you can and they still won't be half as nuts as that guy from Lusianner. He's a hoot! Madhouse is about small-track car racin' in Winston-Salem, NC. The Hatfields and McCoys got nothin' on these folks! Highly recommend both shows as it looks like both will be purty interesting. Have to warn you about Madhouse, though. I'm fairly fluent in both Southern and Redneck, but had a hard time understanding what was being said half the time;
See where Simon Cowell is leaving American Idol after this season. Seems to me like he hasn't been very interested for the last couple of years so reckon he should move on. Ain't nothin' wrong with that. The show's gonna be hard to watch this year now that Ellen DeGeneres is going to be a judge. Next year will be downright unbearable without Simon. Think most people tune in to hear what he has to say whether they like him or not. Maybe that's just me;
Biggest Loser's got some biggun's on it this season. One dude is starting out at over 500 lbs! Right now have to say will like this cast better than last season's cuz they don't appear to be as weepy as that bunch. Will be interesting to see how much the folks lose this time around. Most of them put up pretty big weight-loss numbers in the first week. Hope they can keep it up;
Haven't had a chance to comment on Evil Russell not winning last season's Survivor. Think he was totally hosed cuz he determined just about everything that happened this time around. However, the jury was a bunch of sore losers and voted for the blonde instead. Can't help but think that they didn't want to give a millionaire another million. That's his own fault, though, cuz he never should have told that to anybody. But in Natalie's defense, she did make the decision to align with Russell and she did instigate voting out Eric. So, she did make a few major moves. Just not enough for me to think she should have won. Looking forward to the Villians vs Heroes edition this time around. Could get interesting;
Someone (a fan) said in the paper the other day Nick Saban is Alabama's football messiah. Holy cow. (No pun intended) Hope most Bama fans can realize some of this 'celebrating' is starting to get a little out of hand. People even stood in line for hours in two local Wal-marts just to get their picture taken with the crystal football. Not coaches or players, just the championship trophy. Come on, people, get a grip. Know this will strike some folks wrong, but there are a few things more important than college football. (Will probably get run out of Alabama for that one.)

Well, that's all I got this week. Thanks for playing along. Please feel free to leave any comments below, or send me an e-mail. By the way, know this week's song is a stretch since it doesn't really go along with any topics. Mostly just like the song and felt like using it.

Y'all have a great week!

2009 College Football National Champs!!!

2010-01-08T15:34:00.008-06:00

Try not to be one of those real obnoxious fans you always see and read about. But, when your alma mater wins the championship in anything, you should crow about it just a little bit. Congratulations to Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide for championship # 13 ( or 8 or 7 whoever you want to listen to)!!! I'm one proud alum today!!! Not that I'm not proud to be from Alabama any other time, but sometimes folks are just more proud than others.

Hats off to Texas for a great game. Hate that McCoy got hurt. Imagine waiting four years to play in this game then you get hurt on the fifth play of the game. That just flat out stinks. You know he had to be in bad shape if they wouldn't let him back in. Seems like a real class act, too. It will always give this game a hint of "what if" for a lot of folks. But, you have to play the hand what's dealt you, and injuries are a part of the game. Gilbert played a whale of a second half. He's going to be a stud before his career at Texas is over. That is a tough spot for anyone to be put in, much less a true freshman.

On a funny but sad note, the local Academy Sports (and other stores) reopened after the game to sell shirts and whatnots (imagine they were going to do the same thing in Texas if they had won). Someone called into a local radio show this morning to say he was at an Academy last night, and the lady behind him was saying she wasn't going to pay her power bill so she could buy Alabama stuff. That's just crazy. He told her she was going to have to burn it to keep warm this weekend after they cut her power off. Say what you want, but Saban has earned his contract with this win. Souvenir sales alone over the next couple of weeks will probably pay his salary for a couple of years. Will admit I was at the local Academy last night, too. There were about 60 people in line when I got there and were about 300 still in line when I left (with even more people still coming). It was about 19 degrees, too, and they were only letting people in about 5 at a time. Not sure what that says about any of us who were there.

Anyway, congrats again to the Crimson Tide and Rolllllllllllllllllllllll Tide! Roll!

And Now Back to Our Regularly-Scheduled Programming...

2010-01-04T22:28:00.004-06:00

Don't know about where you live, but it is some kind of cold here in the Deep South. Guess it's wintertime so it's to be expected, but we usually stay in the 40's and 50's, not the 20's and 30's. Anywho...

Now that the holidays are over, have some things to get out of me head that I've been holding off on. Now that you've been warned, here we go:

Saw where a global warming protest had to be cancelled the other day due to a blizzard. Have heard of that before, but this one was going to be in Utah mountains. Seeing as how snow skiing is a purty major industry in Utah, didn't make much sense to me to have a global warming protest there. Guess you pays your money, you takes your chances...;
Yahoo had an article about Obama not being able to truly get away from his job over the holidays. Guess that's the price you pay for being the leader of the free world. If you're planning on running for president, please remember this is part of the job. Didn't read the article so don't know if President Obama was complaining or not. Would guess not. The cynic in me thinks they would have been criticizing a Republican for taking a vacation during these times, especially to Hawai'i, rather than moaning about his inability to truly get away from it all. Maybe that's just me;
Speaking of vacations interrupted, the dude who tried to blow up his underwear has raised some interesting discussions. Saw where Napoliano (the Homeland Security czar, whatever her name is) tried to claim the system worked since his plot failed. Sorry, but his failure had nothing to do with "the system." Just plain dumb luck on our part. Think this exposed more kinks in the system. Has also raised discussions about full-body scans vs. privacy. To me, making sure someone doesn't sneak a bomb aboard a plane is more important than someone seeing if I'm wearing skivvies that day or not. Again, that might just be me. Joke all the time we will all be flying naked before too long. Might not be too far off since they say the full-body scanner wouldn't have picked up that stuff, anyway;
Did read an article that whined about all the flak the president is catching about this episode. Said Bush didn't catch much grief from the Dems when the shoe-bomber thing happened. Don't really think you can blame President Obama for what happened. However, this did happen 8 years after we "tightened" our security whereas the shoe bomber was only 3 months after 9/11, when the new system was just starting and we were pretending to get along a lot better. Although it happened on Obama's watch, there's probably a lot more blame needed a little further down the food chain. When you consider the dude's own father tried to warn us about him and our only reaction was to mark his folder to be scrutinized closer if he decided to renew his visa, there is definitely something wrong with the system. Seems like that was an issue before 9/11, too. Hmmmmmm;
Any of you play FarmVille on Facebook? Love that game. Think it feeds my inner desire to be a farmer like half my family without actually having live the life. You plant seeds, harvest the crops, raise animals, and do lots of other things you would on a real farm. Can even help your neighbors by fertilizing their crops. If I have several to choose from, will usually choose the crop which I would actually eat even though there's no chance it will ever happen. How crazy is that? Lots o' fun, though;
All this stuff with Urban Meyer and Mike Leach shows what a pressure cooker college football coaches live in these days. The job is literally killing Meyer, and he can't make himself quit. Leach gets fired one day before he's due an $800,000 bonus over what appears to basically be a player complaining about lack of playing time when you get to the root of it. Not sure if we'll ever get all the facts since one of the principles involved is a well-known college football analyst. Can't help but think the media will look out for its own in this whole deal. Will just have to wait and see I reckon;
See where Tigger is losing more sponsors because of all these women coming out of the woodworks. His best remedy will be playing in tournaments again. Once he wins one or two, all will be forgiven and the media will start singing about how much he's overcome. You know how folks love a comeback story;
My kids start back to school from Christmas break on Wednesday, provided it don't snow around here. Way back when I was in school, seemed like we only got about a week off. Now they get a month and a half. Well, it seems that way sometimes. Think they will have been out two and a half weeks when they finally start up again. Been nice having them home, though, for the most part.

All right. Well, that's all for now. Hope everyone had a happy holiday season no matter which holiday(s) you choose to celebrate.

Don't know how many of you have your sound turned up when you read this, but I do have music playing in the background. Usually try to pick something that goes with one of my topics. Anyway, will go ahead and warn my non-Bama fan friends that, if we are lucky enough to win Thursday night, our fight song will make it to this site shortly thereafter. So, do with that info what you will.

Have a great week and, as always, thanks for stopping by and readin' fer a spell!

2009 Accomplishments

2009-12-30T16:51:00.006-06:00

Well, it's the end of the year so thought I'd do one of those cheesy blogs where you list all of your accomplishments for the year. Don't do it to brag about myself (OK, maybe just a little) but in the hopes you may think about yours over the year. Sometimes it's easy to forget about the good things you've done when you're caught up in the current moment.

All right, here we go:

Ran my first 5k race - Went on a health kick and started running. Led to my decision to run in the Susan G. Komen, a great and wonderful cause, 5k this year in honor of my grandmother and mother and in memory of my aunt. Had a blast even though it was cold and rainy. Not sure how many more races I will run in other than this one every year. But, we'll see...;
Lost 40 pounds - (My daughter just said she thought I'd lost close to 100. Must be cuz her birthday is Saturday) Another benefit of the health kick. Went to the doc a couple times this year and my blood pressure was higher than ever. So, decided needed to do something or else would have to start taking pills. Ain't old enough for 'em, yet, so started exercising. Didn't lose weight in Biggest Loser proportions, but still purty good by most standards;
Joined Facebook - It's been great finding and catching up with friends I haven't seen much less spoken to in years. Also led to Bejeweled Blitz and FarmVille addictions. Reckon you have to accept the bad with the good;
Started this blog - Joining FB led to starting this blog. Have had a hankering to do one for a while but just never did. Several of my friends have their own blogs and got inspired to actually do it. Get a lot of things out of my head this way, which leads to fewer voices. Have also "met" some people I now consider friends although will probably never actually meet or see them in this lifetime;
Travelled - Had two of the best vacations of my life this year with the family. Both involved going to Disneyworld. Wrote blogs about the memories inspired by both of them. Went several places for work this year, too, but nowhere very exotic to me;
Lots o' quality time with the family - When you travel as much as my job usually requires, this is not always easy. Have truly been blessed in this department this year;
Saw my daughter in her acting debut - She was one of the lead characters in the Christmas pageant this year. She was AWESOME!!! She played Cherry, the head of the Cherubims;
Saw my son play lots of baseball - He was AWESOME, too!!! Also got to play a lot of catch with him and his sister this year;
Played in the snow twice with my kids - No small feat for Birmingham, AL. A blast was had by all!;
Read the Bible all the way through - Well, will have as of tomorrow, anyway. Our church asked everyone to read it all the way through this year. Gave us a daily plan to follow, which really helped. Managed to keep up with it and will finish up tomorrow. A lot of good things in there when you actually take the time to read it.

Well, these are the accomplishments which come to mind. Like I said, not really trying to brag, just hoping it will trigger you to think about the good things that have happened to you over the year. Sometimes people tend to focus more on the negatives than the positives. Funny how that happens.

Overall, been a very good year. Truly appreciate you taking the time to read my blogs this year and hope you will continue into the next. If there is anything you would like to make a comment on, see me change or maybe even suggest a subject to write on, please feel free to drop a line through the comment section below or by sending an e-mail to ScotPS23@yahoo.com.

May God bless you and yours in the upcoming year!

Things That Make Me Happy

2009-12-26T20:11:00.002-06:00

Since this is the time of year most folks tend to reflect on the past, thought I'd rerun this post from earlier this year. Gonna add a few more, too. Hope you enjoy and maybe it will trigger some happy thoughts in your noggin, too:

Thought I'd list a few things that make me smile just so y'all won't think I'm not a happy person. Maybe some of these will make you smile, too.

Watching my wife go all out every time she gets a new interest.
Seeing my kids get excited about anything. One of my favorite pictures of my daughter is her holding up her first cheerleading medal.
Listening to children play outside.
Sitting in the woods or on the water not caring if anything comes by or bites. Listening to nature is a beautiful thing and it's something most folks (myself included) don't do enough.
Watching fireflies in the summertime.
Watching snow fall. Not a sideways-blowin' blizzard but a gentle snow fall.
Grandmama's apple pie. She doesn't cook much anymore, but she will always bake one whenever I visit. My uncle says he wishes I would visit more often.
Getting a new tattoo (after it's finished).
Calvin and Hobbs. Wish they would come back.
The Far Side. Ditto. Said it before, will say it again. Gary Larson is just a flat-out genius.
Hearing the University of Alabama's Million Dollar Band play "Yea, Alabama" during the pre-game. Still get goosebumps every time they play the opening slowly towards each side of the stadium whether I hear it in person, on the radio or on TV.
Listening to Jerry Clower tell a story. Even though I have most of his stories memorized, they still bring a smile to my face just about every time.
Listening to Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd. One of the all time greats. Awesome lyrics and two great guitar solos. For what it's worth, think the second one is the greatest in rock and roll history.
Making new friends.
Talking to old friends.
Realizing new friends are now old friends.
Finding an old friend on Facebook haven't talked to in years but think about often.
Getting pictures my kids draw for me. Carry some of them around in my day planner, which is about the only thing I use it for nowadays.
Watching my kids open their Christmas presents.
Actually surprising my wife with her Christmas presents. (She can usually guess what they are)
Realizing what a wonderful country we live in. We have elections every year and no one ever gets thrown in jail, terrorized or killed by government troops just because of the vote they cast. You can worship just about any way you want. And, for the most part, you have the freedom to say purty much anything you like. Don't mean people have to agree with you, but you can still say and believe just about anything you want. Thank you, Veterans!
Thinking about Jesus being born then dying for my sins (yours, too).

Well, that's just a few things that make me smile. Purposely left out most religious references but it ain't cuz they don't make me smile. Just preach enough on here.

I realize most of you probably ain't Bama fans so the Alabama thing probably don't mean much to you. But, hope your fight song makes you feel the same way, no matter who you may root for. It's more about the sentiment than the song.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Christmas Quotes

2009-12-21T22:22:00.004-06:00

Well, as Christmas season is winding up (or down, however you want to look at it), thought I'd provide some of my favorite quotes from the various Christmas movies and TV shows I like. Hope these are some of your favorites, too.

I want an official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle! Ralph Parker, A Christmas Story
You'll shoot your eye out - Various characters, A Christmas Story
My father wove a tapestry of obscenities that as far as we know is still hanging in space over Lake Michigan - Ralph Parker
Only I didn't say fudge... - Ralph Parker
FRA-GEE-LAY. Must be Italian - Mr. Parker, A Christmas Story
Think that says FRAGILE, dear - Mrs. Parker
It's just like Santa's workshop! Only it smells like mushrooms...and everyone looks like they want to hurt me - Buddy, Elf
You smell like beef and cheese! You don't smell like Santa! - Buddy
If you see a sign that says "Peep Show," that doesn't mean that they're letting you look at the new toys before Christmas - Santa, Elf
You couldn't hear a dump truck driving through a nitroglycerin plant! - Uncle Lewis, Christmas Vacation
That there's an RV...don't you go falling in love with it now because we're taking it with us when we leave next month - Eddie, Christmas Vacation
Can I refill your eggnog? Get you something to eat? Drive you out to the middle of nowhere and leave you for dead? - Clark Griswald, Christmas Vacation
Is there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?! - Charlie Brown, A Charlie Brown Christmas
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, 'Fear not; for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all the people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you: Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.' And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.' - Linus Van Pelt, A Charlie Brown Christmas (Luke 2:8-14)
That's what Christmas is all about - Linus Van Pelt

Yes, indeed, Linus. That IS what Christmas is truly all about.

Not sure if I will post again before Christmas. Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas. Please don't let the craziness of the season get in the way of remembering the Reason for the Season, whether you are celebrating Christmas or Hanukkah.

As always, thanks for reading, and may the Lord bless you and your family!

Quotes to Think About

2009-12-17T19:59:00.004-06:00

Got some quotes kickin' around in me noggin which need to come out. These inspire me, keep me grounded, and/or make me laugh, among other things. So, gonna throw 'em out here. Who knows? They may touch you somehow, too. Will do my best to give credit where credit is due. Some come from TV, some from movies, some from history and various other places. Hope you enjoy:

You beat everything! You know that?! - Andy Taylor, The Andy Griffith Show
Poor old Horatio - Opie Taylor, The Andy Griffith Show
Whooped 'em again, eh, Josey? - Jamie, The Outlaw Josey Wales
Be kind for everyone you meet is involved in a great struggle - Unknown
You never know when that stranger you just met was really an angel sent by God - David Martin
Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it - Winston Churchill
The tribe has spoken - Jeff Probst, Survivor
Charging someone with murder here is like handing out speeding tickets at the Indianapolis 500 - Capt. Benjamin Williard, Apocalypse Now
Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest - Jesus, Matthew 11:28
A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education - Theodore Roosevelt
If I'm so smart, why did I just put a stitch in my glove? - Col. Sherman T. Potter, M*A*S*H
I didn't understand a word you just said, but I'll fight to the death your right to confuse me - Capt Benjamin "Hawkeye" Pierce, M*A*S*H
All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent - Thomas Jefferson, a wise and great American
A man's got to know his limitations - "Dirty" Harry Callahan. Magnum Force
And you want to be my latex salesman - Jerry Seinfeld, Seinfeld
Somebody left the barn door open, and the wrong cows came home - The Stranger, High Plains Drifter
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty - Thomas Jefferson, a wise and great American
Oh, I'm a trained noticer - Barney Fife, The Andy Griffith Show
Men, we just signed a treaty with the Japanese. So, if you see one of their [war] planes, shoot them down in a friendly manner - Admiral William "Bull" Halsey
The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older - Roger Waters, "Time," The Dark Side of the Moon
One of the saddest days of my life was the day I realized I could beat my dad at most things - Homer Simpson, The Simpsons
Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure...than to rank with the those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory or defeat - Theodore Roosevelt
So, do not fear, for I am with you - Isaiah 41:10
No man is a failure who has friends - Clarence, It's A Wonderful Life
For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son, that whoever believe in Him shall not perish but have eternal life - John 3:16

Whoa. That's more than I initially thought. Could list some more but figure you're probably getting tired of reading about now. Please feel free to share any you have.

In honor of this post, have added a quote of the day section at the top. Hope you enjoy it.

Have a great weekend!

These May Only Interest Me, But...

2009-12-14T21:59:00.005-06:00

Been cold and rainy 'round here for the past, oh, six months or so. At least it seems that a way. Combine that with the fact ain't been feeling very well and it leads to a recipe for lots o' thinking, which can be a dangerous thing. But, hopefully it will make fer some interesting reading. Will let you be the judge of that. Anywho, here's a few things I've been thinking and observing this week:

Saw where President Obama is trying to pressure banks into loaning more money to folks. Ain't that what got us into this mess in the first place? Just sayin';
Watched a show about the Beatles on the History Channel this week. Was about their studio/album recording sessions. Seems for the most part they just walked in and jammed for a little while to come up with many of their songs. That's just flat-out remarkable to me. Can remember seeing Mick Jagger being interviewed about them once. Said they were waiting backstage at some TV show with the Beatles. There was some guitar lick The Stones couldn't figure out how to play so they sang it for Paul McCartney one time. He picked up a right-handed guitar, flipped it around, and played it perfectly left-handed on the first try. Not bad for a guy who can't even read music. After hearing that story, have thought they are some of the best musicians the world has ever known. Watching the show this week just solidifies that in my mind;
Know I talk about the Beatles a lot, but, if you were to ask me my all-time favorite band, would tell you in a heartbeat it's Pink Floyd. Just something about their music that really strikes home with me. Have seen some biographies about them lately. One said they made sure Sid Barrett received royalties from all of their albums until the day he died in the early 2000's. In case you don't know, he was one of the founding members and he basically went insane after their first album in the late 60's. Now THAT's what I call loyalty. Roger Waters said they used to "sit around and talk about using drugs." Never said if they actually used them or not although probably know the answer to that already. Don't condone that, but really appreciate the music, which would probably have come out one way or the other. (That's what I've convinced myself of and you ain't gonna change that) Like many other bands, the two really creative forces in the band got to where they couldn't stand each other so they eventually split. What a shame;
The Mrs and I have started watching Pawn Stars on the History Channel. Have to admit never thought I'd like a show about a pawn shop in Vegas, but it's purty good. People bring some interesting stuff in there to sell/pawn. Always amazes me how much they think their stuff is worth, too. Most of the time they overinflate the worth, but occasionally they have no idea what they have. To the shop's credit, they will usually tell the person what they have in those cases. Most of the deals I've seen have been fair to both parties. Recommend you check it out sometime;
Had what George Costanza would probably call the "perfect channel switch" Saturday night. Watched Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer then switched it over to the Heisman award ceremony right as they were opening the envelope. Perfect! Got to see the winner without having to watch all the stuff leading up to the announcement. By the way, Roll Tide! Congratulations to Mark Ingram for bringing the first ever Heisman to The Capstone! Think he deserved to win it, but also think if one of the kids from Nebraska or Stanford would have won, they would have been good choices, too. Now it's time to concentrate on the championship game...;
Was glad to see Megan and Cheyne win The Amazing Race this time since Flight Time and Big Easy were eliminated. Overall, the challenges were purty lame (with a few exceptions - i.e. - repelling face-first down The Mirage), but the show managed to keep my interest. Hopefully, they will have better challenges next time and will stay away from the ones which the winners are based on totally random luck instead of based on the teams' skills and/or knowledge;
Can't wait for the finale to Survivor this week! Gonna be interesting to see if Russell makes it all the way to the end or not. You can call him lucky and/or a real SOB, but he has played the best game by far this year, probably the best since Richard Hatch in the first season;
Good thing there's global warming. Cuz, if there weren't, the Deep South would be a solid block of ice right now. Been cold and rainy for like FOREVER! Well, it feels like it, anyway. We even had snow a week or so ago. Don't usually get that, when we actually get some, until January - March;
One last thing, my cousin's 4 month old daughter is in the hospital with pneumonia and/or RSV right now. She's made a lot of progress but still has a little ways to go. Please say a prayer for her and her parents. God will know who you're prayin' for. Thanks.

Thanks, as always, for making it to the end. Have seen a lot of different places on the map this week. Appreciate each and every one of you who take the time to read this. Please feel free to become a follower on the left-hand side. Comments are always welcome, too. Please check out the other blogs which have links over there, too.

Peace out!

Gapses in the Synapses

2009-12-07T22:44:00.004-06:00

Well, another week down and closer to Christmas. Hard to believe 2010 is right around the corner. Like the song says, "The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older." But, have to say it's been a relatively good year and am sure God has even better things in store for all of us next year. Will just have to wait and see what happens.

Anyway, here are some of my random thoughts for the week. Hope you enjoy:

It was 68 years ago today that the US was bombed at Pearl Harbor. Not many survivors left now but hope it is something we never forget as a country. This day was one of the biggest turning points in our history. This was the day we truly became a world super power. Before then, we had tried to remain an isolationist country. Sure, we helped our allies, but we still tried to stay out of things as best we could. After Pearl Harbor, that changed forever, or, at least for as long as we remain a world power, and, for better or worse, we're now policemen for the world. My wife and I had the privilege of visiting Pearl Harbor a couple of years ago. A very sobering experience and something everyone should do if you ever get to Hawaii. If you are fortunate enough to know a Pearl Harbor survivor, or even a WWII vet, be sure to thank them. They are without a doubt one of our greatest generations ever;
It was 29 years ago this week that John Lennon was shot and killed in New York City. Can still hear Howard Cosell matter-of-factly announcing it between plays on Monday Night Football. Truly one of the most ironic things to ever happen. A man who championed peace was killed by a fan of all people in an act of violence. Just doesn't make sense. He was one of the best lyricists of all time and a bit of a dreamer. OK, a lot of a dreamer. Even though most of his dreams of peace won't come true until after the Apocalypse, it doesn't hurt to have people like him around just to remind the war hawks to give peace a chance every now and then;
All this stuff with Tiger is getting more and more curious. Still have to wonder how much of the coverage is being driven by the fact he refuses to discuss it with the media, for the most part. Media folks tend to get uptight when folks don't genuflect to them with the proper respect. Have heard journalists on more than one occasion say they liked someone cuz they were "good with the media." Like I've said before, he's human just like the rest of us, and all of this stuff going on should really be between him and his mrs. Don't care how much money he makes although one of the trappings of fame and fortune is you will have very little privacy. Guess if you're gonna talk to the media when times are good, you should talk to 'em when things ain't so good, too;
Sad to see Umaga pass away this week at the age of 36. Much too young for someone to be dying of a heart attack. Know he left WWE back in the summer cuz he refused to go to rehab for some sort of chemical-dependency problem so reckon he had his demons just like the rest of us. Very sad. Also a stark reminder that only God knows when our time is up so we should be prepared to go at any time;
And now for something completely different, have you ever noticed that people never drive new pickups in the movies? Think about it. Just about every time you see someone driving a pickup, it's an old (and I mean like 1950's, 60's and 70's old), beat-up truck. The only two movies I can remember seeing new pickups in are The Blind Side and Facing The Giants. Can't remember any TV shows with new pickups, either. Just wonder how they can get Ferrari's, Porsche's, Corvettes, et al, but they can't seem to get new pickups. Don't make a lick of sense to me;
As a proud alum just have to say "Roll Tide!" and hope we have something left for Texas. And, for you Husker fans out there, have to say think y'all was robbed, but there's nothing you can do about it now other than whip 'em good when you play again next year!

Wow, some truly random thoughts this time. Thanks, as always, for indulging me. Have added a new quote and a new blog I'm following on the left-hand side. Be sure to check them out.

Hope this Christmas season is not too hectic for you. Try to slow down every now and then to remember The Reason for the season. Christ was born so that He could die for your sins. And, if you happen to be Jewish, Happy Hanukkah!

Musical Memories

2009-12-02T21:38:00.007-06:00

Music is a funny thing. It can bring people together and/or show just how diverse our world really is. It can also take you totally away from your current reality. There are certain songs that I hear or think about which trigger memories in me head. Most of the memories are completely random and got no idea why that particular memory has stuck in my head most of the time. But, then again, there are some memories which have very good reasons why they are still kicking around in the fog up there.

Thought I would share some with you. Not cuz I think you are interested in my memories, but cuz some of these may trigger your own memories. Hopefully good ones at that.

Anyway...

The Old Rugged Cross - Hummed this to my little girl when she was in the NICU right after she was born. Can remember one of the nurses commenting how she loved the old hymns so must have been louder than I realized. My daughter likes to hum to this day (but not that song) and it really warms my heart whenever I hear her;
Enter Sandman - Metallica - Sang this to my son while he was in the NICU, specifically the prayer and the part right after it. Didn't warp him as far as I can tell...not yet, anyway;
Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd - The movie The Wall was on TV during me and The Mrs' first date. Our first kiss came during this song (least that's how I remember it). Was always one of my all-time favorites before that and always will be now;
Ooo, That Smell - Lynyrd Skynyrd - Makes me think of my friend Michael A. Someone had drawn an airplane on the album cover with a comment about needing more petrol. That was the first time can remember hearing the story about them. We had some good times listening to music at his house;
Tom Sawyer - Rush - Can remember my buddy Sahm and I listening to this at my house. He would hold his eyes open whenever Geddy Lee would sing, "as his eyes are white...";
Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin - Michael told me a story about his cousin (I think) dying in a car wreck while this song was playing. Kind of hard to forget a story like that;
Lucky Star - Madonna - Yes, I know. A totally different path. Anyway, my friend Susan E. came to school sort of dressed like Madonna right after this song was released. Somehow we got to talking about it, and she asked my opinion of how she looked. Said thought she looked like Madonna. She took it as a compliment although purty sure that was not the way I meant it. Didn't really realize she meant to go for that look. Thought she pulled it off but figured Madonna was going to be just another flash in the pan. Shows what I know;
Parents Just Don't Understand - DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince - Working on my grandparent's farm. My cousin Martin introduced me to this song. Had absolutely no interest in rap until I heard it. Still don't like most of it, but can at least tolerate the softer stuff;
Any Cheap Trick song - For some strange reason my friend Sue Mc comes to mind. Think it's cuz she had a huge crush on Robin Zander (I think it was him) when we were in high school;
Most Beatles songs - My time at the Wesley Foundation at Alabama. Used to gather round the pianer and sing Beatles songs while Kennard played or while Jamie picked on the guitar. Good times and good friends...;
Modern jazz music - Fishin' with my bud Eric. The local radio station had a Sunday morning jazz show on Sunday mornings we would listen to while drowning a few crickets. Peaceful...;
Trust and Obey - Used to sing this hymn at my grandparent's church. Can still hear my grandmother singing every time I hear it. (She's still alive, by the way);
God Bless the USA - Lee Greenwood - Went home with my friend Scott C. one Memorial Day weekend when we were in college. His father was a colonel in the Air Force so we went to the base for a fireworks show. This song played in the background for part of the show. That was the first time I really understood the impact of that song.

Anyway, these are how me brain sees them. Thanks for indulging my brief trip down memory lane. Hope it inspires you to do the same. Got others I could talk about but don't want to bore you anymore than I already have. If your name is mentioned, hope you ain't offended.

Later.