Falling off a Blog

Remember those posters with the kitten hanging from a tree branch? I like my version better.

Views as of now: 3200-something

Super songs

Now, to make up for some lost time.

Make that tuneS. Today, songs dedicated to the Man of Steel.

First, a nice homage to the various versions of Superman. Images and video clips shown over John Williams's music for the Superman movie.

Next, a sweet, simple song by the Crash Test Dummies, played over a 50s cartoon. My god, that Lois Lane was an idiot.

Finally, the Streisand song with a slideshow made by someone with a bit of Brandon Routh obsession.

Raiders of the Lost and Found

I'm rather indifferent to Harrison Ford, but I've always been fascinated by Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr. The new film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, is scheduled to open on May 22. Sean Connery won't be back, but Karen Allen will be, returning as Marion Ravenwood.

Wild Cardigan

Weather was chilly, so I put on a sweater.

Finding Yourself Gratification

Seriously, this guy is only touching himself
because I'm not there to do it for him.

USA. A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of...

I don't follow politics as closely as I -- and we all -- should. As Eisenhower said, "In a democracy, politics is everyone's part time job."

But I did list my most important issues, and I found a constant element running through all of them: US Corporations are too damned powerful. Beginning with a misunderstood court ruling in 1865, corporations have been systematically using money to buy political influence, then using that influence to change laws and regulations, then using those changes to gain more money, then... O, you get the idea.

The laws that used to keep them in check (read Hartmann's Unequal Protection to learn about them) have been largely erased, and since the 70s there's been a big propaganda campaign to convince people that anything good for corporations is good for the country.

And the propaganda has worked so well that almost an entire generation believes in deregulation so strongly that they question the intelligence of anyone who doesn't. Almost like religious fanatics talking to "outsiders." Or Cubs fans trying to explain why they're Cubs fans.

Business is vital for any economy, and some freedom is necessary to do business. But too much freedom invites excessive greed and corruption, and that's where I think we are now.

Every year, the country I love looks more like the ugly background to a Dicken's novel, where the ignorant are easily made poor and the poor become ever increasngly desperate, all while the Ebenezer Scrooges and Ralph Nickleby's of the world get richer.

So I went looking for a candidate who would talk openly about the need to curtail corporate excess. A friend of mine told me look at John Edwards, and this is a clip my friend made to talk about him.

Back Hand, Front Ear

Donald Fagan
New Frontier
I'm not sure if I'm in another 80s flashback or not. This song just appealed to me when I found it on line.

Views as of now: 2985

Up Tight End

Here's Part 2 of a clip (and the latest addition to a collection of clips) I put onto YouTube. I hope you enjoy it.

What A Waste Band

Aaron Quatrell
of Vista Video starring in
BOXERS OR BRIEFS

Aaron will return in the
I HATE UNDERWEAR DECISIONS

In other parts of the world (Great Britain, for example) things are different, but in Texas there seem to be few redheads to begin with. And most of them are fairly homely, but the ones that look good look really good.

Views as of now: 2804

Get with the 12-step Program

THE NEXT 11 STEPS ARE MORE FUN
Just like yesterday's list o' the loathsome, I should thank whichever Weblog first introduced me to this. But I can't remember which it was.
45 secs. - SFW

And now
A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR
30 secs. - SFW

EAT YOUR HEART OUT, ROALD DAHL
I love this show. It's sick, but I do.
8 mins. 30 - SFW

Views as of now: 2395

Everybody Loathes Raymond

Yesterday I moved into a new place, so I'm a bit busy at the moment and my access to the Internet will be a bit irregular for a while, meaning I'll update when I can.

Instead of meaningless Thoughts for Thursday from me, check out instead The 50 Most Loathsome People in the USA. Entry #9 is both the most apt and most shameful, I think.

Views as of now: 2312

Sex with a Minor Offense

The next morning I woke up to find him sneaking out. It was only later that I discovered he'd stolen my clock that looked like a cat with the moving eyes and tail. Thieving bastard!

Spurs are not allowed

pony boy - n. /PO nee boi/ metaphor describing a young
man as if he were a young horse because 1) he's fit, healthy,
strong, and athletic; and 2) he needs to be ridden.

Oval Office Politics

"When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President.
Now I'm beginning to believe it." - Clarence Darrow

"In America any boy may become President and I suppose
it's just one of the risks he takes." - Adlai Stevenson

"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President
should on no account be allowed to do the job." - Douglas Adams

"There is a tragic flaw in our precious Constitution, and
I don't know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases
want to be president." - Kurt Vonnegut

"I had rather be right than be President." - Henry Clay

"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean
to stand by the president." - Theodore Roosevelt

And I'll give the last word to one of my heroes:

"Any American who is prepared to run for president
should automatically, by definition, be disqualified
from ever doing so." - Gore Vidal

Views as of now: 2211

Love Life of Riley

I may have found a new sports obsession for myself. Wake Forest quarterback Riley Skinner. A 21-year-old, 6'1" sophomore originally from Jacksonville, Florida, and will probably be the love of my life (for the next couple of hours, at least.)

From all that I've read (admittedly, not much), he's a big part of the team's success lately, but -- being the superficial and vapid horndog that I am -- I was more attracted by his photographs. I love how animated and enthusiastic his face gets.

And it's a great face too.

Just look at that expression! Someday he'll be that
happy to see me come home at the end of the day.

I like the school's initials sewn onto the uniform, but I bet that
the temptation to add a little T in the middle is really strong.

I have no explanation for it, but something about his face here
reminds me Catherine Zeta Jones. Well, I said I had no explanation!

It's hard to believe that this is the same guy. He looks
so different without that smile that takes over his face.

Notice the different colours? This pic must be
from his 14-0 high school team in Florida.

Graduating Class Act

Josh Groban
You're Still You

His performance on Ally McBeal, which is where I first heard him sing. He was playing a nerdy high school student who went to court to gain the right to sing at his graduating class's prom. High school social outsider wins popular acclaim -- no wonder I like it.

I'm not crazy about his choice of songs most of the time because it's too Muzack for my tastes, but he does have a great voice.

Ah ha! YouTube has removed the clip from the Ally McBeal show. Here's another one of the same song, with the lyrics.
3 mins. 30 - SFW

Views as of now: 1238

You Know the Drill

Kenneth at Definition of a Man has named Nick Auger his Man of This Month and in the past six days has shown us some impressive pictures of the man. Nick was a 22-year-old computer science major who had never modeled before he won the Model Universe competition in 2004 (I think the photo on the right is from that competition, actually). I don't see much of him in magazines anymore, but he's one of the fitness models connected with Strengthnet.com and occasionally he'll show up in a workout video on YouTube.

Nick's certainly a good-looking guy, with a lean body and a wicked grin, but I have a hard time believing that that is his real name.

"Nick" is the kind of hard, monosyllabic name that famed author and homophobe Ernest Hemingway would have been proud of, and an auger - as any good farmboy knows - is an over-sized drill.

I find it just too much of a coincidence that this beautiful man would get such a studly name by chance.

As long as I'm talking about onomastics here, I'd like to point out that Kenneth is a Scottish name meaning "handsome."

Michael is the modern form of an ancient Hebrew name meaning basically "god- like." Well, all right.

Views as of now: 2092

Presented in Technicolor Yawn

Oh, better that you not ask for details.

Views as of now: 2048

So many spoofs of bad TV...

...you'll think you're watching a bad episode of Saturday Night Live. Seriously, when did that show become nothing but parodies of television? It's like the writers know their TV but nothing else.


DON'T END UP LIKE BRENDA WALSH
45 secs. - SFW

SADLY, I KNOW PEOPLE WHO LIVE LIKE THIS
30 secs. - SFW

And now
A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR
I'm Mike Ellis, and I approve this message.
1 min. 10 - SFW

OVER EAGER
Inane acting, annoying theme song and a guest star looking embarrassed.
Just like real TV.
2 mins. 15 - SFW

SCRATCH OFF
2 mins. 40 - SFW

Views as of now: 1935

Speaking English Correctly #1

Drop the Soap! For the Love of God, Drop the Soap!

So which do you prefer, bath or shower?

For those of you taking names, they are three unknown guys (to me, at least. Presumably they know their own names) followed by Joseph Sayers, Jake "No Chin Should Be This Perfect" Campione, and Edilson Nascimento.

Upward Bound and Determined

"An unexamined life is not worth living." - Socrates

Years ago, when I first learned what a "quarterly review" was, I decided that if it was good enough for a business, it was certainly good enough for a human life.

That's when I started making a point of spending the first of January, April, July, and October and spending them in some quiet place, far from cable television and cell phones, and just being alone with my thoughts. Pondering where I was in life, where I wanted to go, and how I was going to get there. I did this for years, almost never missing a day (though I did sometimes move the first to the nearest available weekend).

I did it again this month. On New Year's Day, while I was packing things away into storage, I had many hours in a quiet, relatively distraction-free place to just think.

And all was able to come up with was that I already knew what I needed to know. That I didn't like the way my life was but that no one could or would change it but me. That I knew where I wanted my life to go and mostly knew how to get there; it was primarily a matter of getting my butt into gear.

The short version is that I need a job and, eventually, a couple of Master's degrees. And to stop spending so much time avoiding the responsibilities of my own life. It's frankly a bit frightening going through this crap with little or no support system, but at the same time it's rather freeing. Sure, I don't have people I can turn to for help or advice, but I also don't have people I have to please. I may be alone in this car, but I also don't have anyone telling me how to drive nor fucking with my radio.

Views as of now: 1854

High Resolution

“An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in.
A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.” - Bill Vaughn

“New Year's Eve, where auld acquaintance be forgot.
Unless, of course, those tests come back positive” - Jay Leno

“New Year's Resolution: To tolerate fools more gladly,
provided this does not encourage them to take up
more of my time.” - James Agate

“People are so worried about what they eat between Christmas
and the New Year, but they really should be worried about
what they eat between the New Year and Christmas” - Anonymous

“The proper behavior all through the holiday season
is to be drunk. This drunkenness culminates
on New Year's Eve, when you get so drunk you kiss
the person you're married to.” - PJ O'Rourke

“Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual
good resolutions. Next week you can begin
paving Hell with them as usual.” - Mark Twain

“Happiness is too many things these days for anyone
to wish on anyone lightly. So let's just wish each other
a bileless New Year and leave it at that.” - Judith Crist

"What's Christmas to you but a time for finding yourself a year
older but not one penny richer?" - Ebenezer Scrooge
(Sure, the pre-graveyard Scrooge is not exactly the best role model for one's life,
but the old capitalist kinda nailed my situation on this one.)

____________________

BY THE WAY
Google ads are selected by some computer application which searches the text of a Web page and then choosing ads related to the terms found in the text. Because of two recent posts, Google ads seems to think this Weblog is about cancer. (Damn, I just used the word again!)

Over time that impression will fade, but now I'm thinking seriously of throwing in random bizarre words just to see what kind of ads I get.

Now that I think about it, the most commonly used word on this Weblog may well be "random." What kind of ads would that get me?

Views as of now: 1783

Fire House Call

Another perfectly good photo of a fire truck being spoiled by some jerk.

This one is really random today. All I know about him is that - at least, according to the guy from whom I stole the photo - his name is Phil. Yet another name that's also a verb.

Telling This with a Sigh

Dan Fogelberg - Same Auld Lang Syne
According to the lyrics, this story took place on Christmas Eve, but I've always associated this song with New Year's Eve instead. I don't know whether that's because of the title, the sax solo at the end, or just the melancholia of the story itself, all about passing time and roads not taken.

Good, poignant stuff for the end of one year and the beginning of a new one.
6 mins. 15 - SFW
(The video and audio are badly synchronized. Just ignore the picture and listen to the words)

When I looked up the code for this video this morning, I had no idea that Dan Fogelberg had died, on 16 December. The 56-year-old singer/songwriter succumbed finally to the prostate cancer which had been diagnosed in 2004.

Remembered by his fans for his clear tenor voice and evocative ballads, his career peaked in the late 70s and early 80s. No doubt there are many today who have never heard of him, but it's definitely their loss. His songs were always full of genuine humanity and feeling, which stemmed from the clear, simply expressed emotions of their lyrics.

Views as of now: 1735